As one last present before the holiday break, Universal is giving everyone a nice little treat heading in the latter part of the week. Tuesday, the studio released Violent Night on digital marketplaces, allowing those interested in watching the ability to either rent or purchase the flick right in time for Christmas. The film was released earlier this month and is still netting a sizable amount at the box office.
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Through Tuesday, the R-rated dark comedy thriller has earned nearly $56 million at the box office, a sum doubling its reported production budget. Using average Hollywood accounting standards, it’s likely the film has already started making a profit for the studio.
Though Universal has yet to officially greenlight a sequel, Violent Night writer Josh Miller has plenty of ideas in store alongside his writing partner Pat Casey.
“We’re all hoping we get lots of sequels. We’re hoping we can baby step into crazier and crazier things,” Miller said in a recent chat withย SYFY Wire. “Based on reactions to the first movie on Twitter and stuff, we see a lot of people wanting to know more about Santa’s backstory. So it does feel like there’s an appetite for more of that tale to be told.”
“We used to have more of his backstory in the first one and that got stripped out for pacing,” he continued. “I guess it’ll be a bummer if we never get a sequel, but part of us was was kind of happy because that just leaves more stuff to do in sequels. One thing we’ve learned from theย Sonicย movies is [that] sometimes painting yourself into a corner for the sequel sucks. Because you’re like, ‘Oh, man! I wish we hadn’t said that one sentence in the earlier movie!’”ย
Whatever the case, both Miller and Casey are well-aware of the desire for more mid-budget, action-packed movies whether its set during the holidays or not.
“There’s obviously room for all sorts of stuff. But the fact that our producers are [David Leitch’s] 87North and their specialty is all these drag-out, bone crunching fights, the impulses is to continue with Santa kicking the asses of a bunch of stuntmen rather than like fighting a monster necessarily,” Casey added.
What’d you think of Violent Night? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section!
