What were they thinking? I mean, really? What could possibly have led anyone to think that opening this movie this past weekend was a good idea? Chalk it up to one of the worst ideas in movie release history. As surprised absolutely no one, Guillermo del Toro’s NIGHTMARE ALLEY got trounced at the box office this past weekend. Flat-out slaughtered. Because some moron in an office somewhere decided to release it up against SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME, one of the most anticipated—No, scratch that. Box office returns have proven that it was *the* most anticipated movie of the past two years. Granted nobody was expecting Spider-Man to hit as big as it ended up hitting. Nobody ever expects something like that. But still, any egghead should have known that NIGHTMARE ALLEY would get walloped. Sure, they were hoping to catch the relatively minuscule residue, the counter-programming crowd. But they misjudged, and badly, because the audience that wants to see NIGHTMARE ALLEY is the exact same that wanted to see Spider-Man.
I’m a hardcore Horror junkie. I will go to the theater to see any and every well-made Horror movie offered. And I love Guillermo del Toro. I will go to the theater to see any and every movie he makes. But this past weekend, I was watching Spider-Man. I would have gone to see both films, but it’s the Christmas season and my schedule is fuller than at other times of the year. I am the textbook definition of the target audience for NIGHTMARE ALLEY—and even *I*, when forced to choose, went with Spider-Man. The suits should have expected that.
Next weekend, or the weekend after that, I will go see NIGHTMARE ALLEY, yes. But if that was what the suits were banking on, that people would go see their movie next week or the week thereafter, why didn’t they simply wait to release it then?
