Universal and Blumhouse seem to be running out of options as the most bankable genre in the theatrical marketplace lets them down once again. The studios have had a difficult time getting their horror properties to perform at the box office, at a time when audiences appear to be favoring more ambitious projects such as Weapons and Sinners. In the past 18 months, Universal and Blumhouse have delivered a string of box-office underperformers, barring the odd hit like Five Nights at Freddy’s 2. The disappointing streak began with Wolf Man, for which they hired director Leigh Whannell to recreate the success of The Invisible Man. But the movie tanked. The curse seems to be continuing, as this week’s new offering, Lee Cronin’s The Mummy, is poised to deliver similarly disappointing results.
These movies were conceived after Universal’s $170 million tent-pole The Mummy, starring Tom Cruise, failed to launch an ambitious shared franchise modeled after the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It was decided that, instead of producing interconnected movies featuring classic Universal Monsters, standalone features produced on smaller budgets ought to be made instead. And the pivot appeared to pay off, with Whannell’s The Invisible Man grossing more than $140 million worldwide against a reported budget of $7 million in 2020. But every subsequent project — Renfield, which made just $26 million worldwide against a $65 million budget; The Last Voyage of the Demeter, which grossed $21 million worldwide against a $45 million budget; and Wolf Man, which grossed $35 million worldwide against a $25 million budget — has underperformed.
Here’s How Much ‘Lee Cronin’s The Mummy’ Is Eying this Weekend at the Box Office
Cronin’s The Mummy is expected to gross $13 million domestically in its first weekend, against a reported budget of $22 million. This is lower than any previous installment in the franchise, including Cruise’s box-office bomb, which opened with more than $30 million. All three films starring Brendan Fraser grossed at least thrice as much as Cronin’s movie in their respective opening weekends. Fraser and Rachel Weisz are returning for a new installment in that franchise, which seems to be a better bet for Universal. Cronin’s movie opened to mixed reviews and is currently sitting at a 45% score on Rotten Tomatoes. The aggregator website’s consensus reads, “Director Lee Cronin’s take on The Mummy injects some juicy gore and personal stakes into the classic horror setup, but the scares in this gross-out extravaganza get entombed by a padded running time.” Stay tuned to Collider for more updates.
- Release Date
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April 17, 2026
- Runtime
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136 Minutes
- Director
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Lee Cronin
- Writers
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Lee Cronin

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