The new 'Exorcist' movie is terrible. But critic-proof cash cows in horror are here to stay.

• The new "Exorcist" movie wasn't beloved by critics or audiences, but still performed decently on opening weekend.
• Box-office experts call horror a largely "critic-proof" genre that audiences see for the experience.

The new "Exorcist" movie topped the box office during its opening weekend, but it didn't scare up the numbers Universal was likely hoping to see after spending a huge $400 million for the rights to create a new trilogy.

After receiving abysmal reviews (the movie currently sits at 23% on Rotten Tomatoes), "The Exorcist: Beginnings" opened to $27.2 million domestically on a reported $30 million budget.

It's a bit south of box-office projections which called for the resurgence of the 1973 classic to make north of its budget. But it's still the best opening weekend for the franchise, which now consists of six films. (The original grossed $7.4 million in a month.)

"Absent poor reviews, this would probably have done $30 million, maybe $40 million, but it's still a decent number," Bruce Nash, CEO and founder of movie financial database The Numbers, told Insider of the opening weekend for "Beginnings," explaining horror movies, regardless if they're new IP or from an existing franchise, usually perform in that range if they connect with audiences.

From director David Gordon Green, who recently revitalized the "Halloween" franchise to middling success, 2023's "Exorcist" follows a single father (Leslie Odom Jr.) desperate to rid his daughter and her friend of a demonic possession.

Creepy trailers teased jump scares and screams, but a crowded October 6 screening Insider attended remained silent throughout the two-hour movie. Exposition heavy, the revamp doesn't offer many frights and there seemed to be little to no audience recognition of Ellen Burstyn who reprised her role as protagonist Chris MacNeil from the original.

However, despite terrible reviews (and only a somewhat better audience score), "The Exorcist: Beginnings" didn't bomb. It nearly hit its target box-office projections.

The film's performance speaks to a larger trend in the horror genre.

There's a pattern of horror movies disliked by critics and audiences that perform really well in theaters

When you look at the horror genre at large, there are two fascinating subgroups.

There are horror movies that critics hate and audiences love which perform really well at the box office. "The Nun 2" recently made over $249 million worldwide despite poor critical reviews, but receiving positive audience scores. The majority of the "Saw" franchise has made over $100 million apiece despite mostly rotten reviews.

Then there are horror films that neither critics nor audiences like, but make a lot of money regardless.

The first "Annabelle" movie made $257 million worldwide. The first "Nun" movie came in at $366 million worldwide.

A majority of the "Paranormal Activity" franchise has been trashed, but the films have grossed over $800 million worldwide. Most of the "Resident Evil'' franchise has negative reviews all around, yet it has grossed $1.2 billion in total.

It's a weird phenomenon, but it turns out that horror movies don't need to be good to do well, they just need to exist.

"Horror is probably the genre which is most critic-proof," Nash told Insider. "I think that's partly because of a disconnect between the people who are writing criticism and the people who are going to see the films."

"Critics tend to be a little bit older, particularly the ones that have got established and writing for the major outlets," he continued, adding, "They probably skew more male and whiter than the population in general, particularly when you are looking at the average 18-year-old. And these are films that do appeal to somewhat younger audiences."

Nash says horror fans looking for something to do together on a Friday night likely aren't going to be bothered by what a critic has to say. Instead, they're likely picking the movie based on a trailer they saw or more simply, because it happens to be out in theaters.

"They're not really looking at, 'Is this a classic of the horror genre?' 'Does this introduce new ideas into horror filmmaking?' It's a little bit of a different scenario than a drama or even a comic-book action movie," Nash explained.

Jeff Bock, a box-office analyst at Exhibitor Relations, agreed that horror reviews largely don't matter.

"Audience's tastes are vastly different from critics, especially in horror," Bock said. "Most audiences when they're going to a horror film, they never read the reviews. Why would you read the reviews? The only people that you're attracting with really good reviews from a horror film are people who usually don't go to horror films. Otherwise, horror fanatics will show up for anything that's been proven time and time again."

Daniel Loria, SVP of content strategy and editorial director at BoxofficePro, agrees this phenomenon of movies performing well despite a negative consensus may be exclusive to the genre. Horror is popular for studios because production costs are usually relatively low while returns are high, something Blumhouse, the studio behind many popular low-budget horror hits, has perfected.

People usually aren't purchasing horror tickets to see stars, they're going to theaters for an event.

"Audiences tend to go to horror movies for an experience. I think that's one of the key reasons why horror has been one of the best-performing genres after the pandemic because audiences right now, when going to the movies, it isn't about seeing a movie. You can see a movie anywhere with the press of a button," Loria said.

He continued: "It's an experience ticket. It's a thrill ride sometimes. We go there because we're allowed to get scared in public and scream in public sometimes and audiences are drawn to that. Because of that, a critical opinion or a critical consensus on a horror movie is less important when you're buying an experience ticket."

Loria said a horror review may help play a role in its success if it's a smaller film picked up from a festival to help drive awareness for something that audiences may not have realized existed.

"But when we talk about Blumhouse movies, when we talk about 'Nun' movies, 'Conjuring' movies, the 'Halloween' relaunch, this 'Exorcist' relaunch, there are audience expectations on what they're going to get when they buy a ticket, and it's really hard for them to be dissuaded by what critics say," Loria said.

Universal overpaid for the 'Exorcist' trilogy, but it's far from the end of the saga

What does this mean for the 'Exorcist' trilogy moving forward?

Universal purchased rights to a new "Exorcist" trilogy in 2021 for a reported $400 million, an eyebrow-raising price tag that has been referred to as a gamble in recent weeks.

"Obviously they overpaid. There's no doubt in my mind that they overpaid, but they did it because there was a huge, I think, amount of heat for all IP legacy, especially in horror," Bock said, pointing that Universal's last reboot to a classic franchise, "Halloween," brought in $76 million opening weekend in $10 million budget.

"This is nowhere near that," Bock said of "The Exorcist: Beginnings" opening, a movie which cost roughly three times 2018's "Halloween." "'Exorcist' is one of the iconic horror films, but it's really never had success outside of that original. They thought it was a 'Halloween,' a 'Friday the 13th.'"

Bock says a mistake of "The Exorcist: Beginnings" was bringing Green back to direct after his "Halloween" sequels — "Halloween Kills" and "Halloween Ends" — failed to be as financially successful (though still successful) as 2018's reboot.

The box-office total of each subsequent film dropped from $255 million in 2018 to $105 million by the time "Ends" was released in 2022. Both sequels were also released simultaneously on Peacock to stream.

"I thought he ran 'Halloween' into the ground," Bock said of Green. "I would've never hired him to do 'Exorcist.' I would've gone with someone fresh, someone completely different, to get a new take on this."

"This film's doing OK, but it certainly isn't going to legitimize this horror franchise in terms of making it one of the iconic horror franchises of all time. If you think about iconic horror franchises, they all have a villain that people love and they don't really have that," Bock said of instantly recognizable horror icons like Freddy Krueger and Michael Myers.

"You almost have to deliver an iconic villain," Bock said of how the new "Exorcist" trilogy moves forward with more successful follow-ups to avoid receiving a similar fate to "Halloween."

Currently, a sequel, "The Exorcist: Deceiver," is set for 2025.

"Maybe by the time they get to part three, we will have a face for this franchise. I think that's the only way to successfully pivot from where they are now and turn this into a long-term franchise," Bock added of "Exorcist." "And if that does happen, then, yeah, maybe that $400 million investment wasn't so bad, but they're going to have to change a lot of things for that to be successful."