'The First Purge' Opens to $2.5 Million on Tuesday Night

The latest installment in Blumhouse's Purge franchise, The First Purge, had a solid opening in theaters on Tuesday night, raking in $2.5 million at more than 2,300 theaters.

For a lower-budget horror movie, these opening night numbers are good indicators for the Purge prequel film, which is on pace for a decent run at the box office heading into the weekend. Opening against Ant-Man and the Wasp is no easy challenge, but the two extra days will certainly help.

According to Deadline, The First Purge is projected to make between $25 million and $36 million over the course of its opening weekend. Given that the film's budget was a mere $13 million, that's fantastic return on investment for Blumhouse.

While The First Purge certainly found success in its first night, it does mark the lowest preview outing for the entire franchise. The original Purge film, which was released back in 2013, debuted to $3.44 million in previews and went on to earn a total of $34 million in its opening weekend.

Two years ago, The Purge: Election Year posted the highest preview results of the franchise to date, raking in $3.64 million on Thursday night, en route to Memorial Day weekend total of $36.1 million. The Purge: Anarchy opened to $2.64 million in previews, with a weekend total of $29.8 million. It's worth noting that The First Purge is the first movie in the franchise to open on Wednesday, rather than the usual Friday.

At this point, the Purge franchise as a whole has made $320 million worldwide for Universal and Blumhouse. That may not sound like a lot, but when you compare the haul to the actual budgets of the films, it's easy to see that The Purge is a certified money maker. The first three films in the series were made for a total of $22 million, meaning that the franchise has earned nearly 15 times its cost.

If this trend continues with The First Purge, there will likely be no end in sight for this penny-pinching franchise.

How well do you think The First Purge will perform over the course of the weekend? Will it have the highest opening for the franchise? Let us know