Robert Eggers’ fourth feature film, Nosferatu, has exceeded expectations at the box office, a welcome relief after the relative failure of his previous movie, The Northman. Like all of Eggers’ movies, Nosferatu has received excellent Rotten Tomatoes scores, and its box office performance has reflected its perceived quality.
Starring Bill Skarsgård as the vicious Count Orlok alongside Lily-Rose Depp, Nicholas Hoult, and Willem Dafoe, Nosferatu is already among the most successful vampire adaptations ever. While Eggers’ movies have always garnered acclaim from critics, they have not all seen the box office success to match it. Eggers’ debut movie, The Witch, was a hit, but his next two films failed to turn a profit.
The Northman, which was released in the middle of April, had a few factors working against it, including head-to-head competition with another highly-anticipated film and a limited release window before hitting streaming platforms. In contrast, Nosferatu had very little competition as the only major horror release around Christmas 2024, and it benefited from the built-in horror audience and the hype around Skarsgård’s performance as Count Orlok.
Nosferatu’s success has given Eggers the box office credibility he deserves, which should help in greenlighting future movies or his rumored TV series. The film is a remake of the 1922 silent film of the same name, and Eggers is crafting his own version of the story as writer and director. The film tells the tale of a young woman who falls victim to a vampire utterly infatuated with her.
The film has a runtime of 132 minutes and features a cast of characters including Count Orlok, Ellen Hutter, Thomas Hutter, Professor Albin Eberhart Von Franz, and others. It is distributed by Focus Features and Universal Pictures, and is set to be released on December 25, 2024.
