20 years ago, Robert de Niro’s horror movie was a successful box office

(Welcome to Tales from the box officeOur column that examines the box office miracles, disasters, and everything between them, as well as what we can learn from them.))

Horror movies may not often get much respect, critically. For any reason, they are often dealt with as less than entertainment. It is only the rare offers of rare species that can continue to embrace them in a critical and commercial manner, with Jordan Peele’s “Get Out” as a relatively bright example. This is strange though. One of the undeniable fact is that these films are the reliable spine of the Hollywood studios, as they achieve fixed profits against relatively low investments. Good movies, bad movies, often does not matter.

Horrings lovers will tell you that the number of bad films has much exceeds good in any specific year. It comes to searching for this diamond in raw. For this reason, from time to time, a picture of the type criticized by the critical society that can still be able to penetrate and make a boat load of money. This was the case in 2005 when “Hide and Seeking”, a small, exciting movie starring Robert De Niro and a young man in the name of Dakota Fanning, made a straight bank before it disappeared to a relative ambiguity. It is the remnants of the time that has long passed.

In the tales of this week from the box office, we look back at “Hide and Seek” in honor of the twentieth anniversary of its founding. We will go to what it is, and what the scene of the cinema seemed to be at that time, how its stars raised the procedures, what happened when the film struck the theaters, what happened in the wake of its release, and what the lessons in which we can learn from it throughout these years. Let’s publish, are we?

The film focuses on the psychologist David Kalawai (Robert de Nero) who reels after his wife (Amy Irfing) takes her private life. He seeks a new start, decides to take his daughter Emily (Dakota Fanning) away from New York City to a home in the country. Emily struggled with sadness to make new friendships, with the exception of an imaginary friend named Charlie. Or is it? Things become twisted and deadly, as a series of unfortunate events are revealed before reaching a twisted result.

Fox picked up the “Hide and Seek” text program in November 2002 and started developing it for the big screen. It was written by Ari Shalosburg, as he was his first advantage in writing credit. Perhaps heavily, he only has another credit advantage for his name. Originally, Albert Hughes, known for his cooperation with his brother Allen Hughes, such as “from hell”, was appointed to achieve his first single appearance, but he left the project in late 2003 on “creative differences”, for each. diverse. Hughes will continue to direct the 2018 movie “Alfa”, ” In addition to the “John Wick” series “The Continental”.

John Bolson (“” “” Swimfan “) ascended to the painting after he left Hughes. Meanwhile, De niro was attached to Star in the leadership role, and despite the change in managers, he remained on board while receiving millions of dollars in payment for his services. Not only that De Niro was one of the most respectable actors at the time (and it can be said that he is still), with classics like “The Godfather Part II”.

This was the era of De Niro trying to play against the species. It was working well. It was launched from the year 2000 “Meet The Parents”, which achieved a great success of $ 330 million worldwide, It paves the way for a greater completion, “Meet the Fockers” for the year 2004. Some of his other songs of this era include “Analysis of this” and “Honor men”. Now, he was at the forefront of a major horror movie, which was another unexpected turn.

There is no doubt because De Niro’s involvement that “the scenario is $ 5 gets a $ 50 million treatment,” like diverse Put it in 2005 before the release of the movie. This also helped secure the A list on De niro, including Famke Janssen (“” X-Men “), Elizabeth Shui (” Turk Vegas “), and most importantly, Dakota Fanning. The young actress has been introducing in Hollywood from a very early age, Her adherence to huge movie stars such as Denzel Washington in the movie “Man on Fire” Shawn bin in “I am Sam”.

Although her tenth birthday was on the “Hide and Search” collection, Fanning gained a great reputation, which was growing with every movie. “I forgot to be a child,” said Yansen IGN From Fanning in 2005. “There is nothing similar to it. It has been a mini grown. It is very smart and very talented clearly.”

It is this rising star from Fanning, along with the beloved veterinarian like De niro, who raised the so -called text program $ 5 to something that the audience actually wants. In that same interview, Fanning showed how she was in her life, and she put a rhetoric why she wanted to be in this movie:

“I read everything and just wanted to do it badly, such a different character that I have not played before, different from myself. All the other characters that I played, I can always find something like me but with this, there is nothing like me at all. I was photographing it, it was very intense and I had to keep all these feelings throughout the series.

Fox released “hide and research” at multiple ends; One for us the public and one is seen elsewhere in the world. In total, five ends of the film were filmed, all of which eventually reached DVD. The main film remained the same, but the end has provided the story differently, providing a little different fate for Emily. The great dependency is that David is actually Charlie, because it has developed a separatist identity disorder. When the movie has the many ends, it is not often a great sign of the movie itself.

To this end, “hiding and researching” was not adopted by today’s critics, to put it lightly. “Hiding and seeking” is not worth finding it, “announced Lantern at that time. It was not important though, as an effective trailer alongside its stars raised the attention of the cinema. It also did not harm that the only direct competition when it opened is Lionsgate’s “Alone in the dark,” one of the worst video game movies ever looked.

“Hide and Seek” was opened on January 28, 2005, for the first time on top of the box office, reaching $ 21.9 million. For a $ 25 million production budget, that was a Fox victory. When “Bogeyman” and “The Wedding Date” opened on the following weekend, the De niro movie decreased strongly, as nearly 60 % decreased by $ 8.9 million. The huge successful Will Smith “Hitch” in her profits comes in mid -February. It hardly matters.

The film ended its career with $ 51.1 million to go with $ 76.2 million globally, to a total of $ 127.3 million worldwide. This is the return of any studio that will be killed today. It is almost certain to have a complement. In 2005 though? It was just here today, tomorrow a large cash cow went.

In 2005, the DVD market was healthier than it is today. We were still years of instant Netflix to become something. As a result, this film continued to enjoy a nice second life on the home video, enhancing Fox’s profits. However, after two decades, it is difficult to find Blu-ray, it is not currently in any paid large flow service, currently residing on free Tubi Tubi. Even horror movies like Stephenyard Shift “Graveyard Shift” Blu-ray and 4K versions were given by boutique stickers.

“Hide and research”, on the other hand, no such version has been granted. It seems almost not discussed. In fairness, many pieces have been released retroactively in the years since then, and some viewers were pushed against their reputation. Reddit User TBLROXDANHL4 It was called “Wonderful Film” on R/Movies Subreddit several years ago. But outside the Internet forums and many journalists. At best, a person may say at that time something, “Oh yes, I remember this movie.”

But this was the works of cinema in the early first decade of the twentieth century. The broadcast has not completely changed viewing habits. People still go to the cinema because they wanted to watch a movie. A movie can just be a movie – something someone did on a day ending in Y after dinner. This was also when Fox was still launching about ten films annually in theaters before Disney acquired the studio in 2019 and dramatically reduced this number. The journey of this film is really what it seemed to work.

Without taking inflation, very few horror films in 2024 managed to make the most money such as this rare that we are discussing, which is a very exciting movie. It looked like a big deal and a cultural event when “Longlegs” reached $ 100 million. 20 years ago, a horror movie with two major stars can sell the same number of tickets regularly. The work was as usual, not a very big deal.

Looking at “hiding and researching” now, it is a realistic reminder of the change of work. For people like me who cherish the theatrical experience, I miss the days when more of my colleagues decided to watch a movie for hell. Now, it seems that something should become a real event for most people bothering him. This is unfortunate. In 2025, a movie like this either will go directly to the live broadcast or is certainly floundering and floundering badly at the box office.

In the installment era VOD and Big movies like “The Fall Guy” available at home just weeks after hitting theatersMaybe we will never return to this place. In some respects, this is good. I do not necessarily suggest that the January movie with poor reviews should make the bank. What I suggest is that in the 2005 world, there was an opportunity for more films to flourish. More movie makers have a chance to try things. It was not “a privilege or a bust”.

This is missing. But fighting the future is like fighting the tide. It is better to embrace what is and work to improve the future as much as possible, instead of wanting to return.