Jordan Peele’s ‘Get Out’ is the Highest Grossing Film Debut for Writer-Director
Get Out is Jordan Peele feature debut. Made on a $4.5 million budget it has grossed nearly $160 million worldwide. BoxOffice Mojo reports that domestically (US & Canada) the film has grossed $152.8 million. At the foreign box office the film has grossed $6.7 million. Therefore, the film has dethroned Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez’s The Blair Witch Project, another horror flick, for the title of highest grossing film debut for a writer-director with an original screenplay. The international roll-out of Get Out will boost the film past $200 million, it is unclear if Get Out will get a Chinese release date. If and when it does, expect the film to get a significant boost.
Image via Blumhouse
Peele is the the first African American writer-director to have a $100 million film, a debut film no less. Peele received the Director of the Year award at CinemaCon. CinemaCon Managing Director Mitch Neuhauser stated,
“With the phenomenon known as ‘Get Out,” Jordan Peele has instantaneously become a force to reckon with as a gifted and enormously talented director and filmmaker. He has audiences and critics around the globe enamored and spellbound, dare I say hypnotized, with his wildly inventive directorial debut, and we are ecstatic to be honoring him as this year’s ‘Director of the Year.”
This is excellent news for Black talent in the industry. Studios may take this as a sign to take on daring and creative projects from people of colour. This is also exciting news for Peele, as this has become the biggest bargaining chip for his career. Warner Bros is already knocking on his door to potentially direct Akira. Get Out is the gift that will keep on giving for Peele, and many more.
Source: Blackfilm. BoxOffice Mojo.
