This New Horror Film Has a Surprisingly Low Box Office Forecast After Strong Trailer Buzz

The supernatural horror flick Passenger has received worryingly low box office predictions and could get lost in the background. Not to be confused with the 2023 American thriller film The Passenger or the upcoming historical escape thriller also named The Passenger featuring Jeremy Strong, this Paramount Pictures production fits comfortably in the wheelhouse of Norwegian director André Øvredal who is known for 2019’s Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark. Passenger follows couple Tyler (Jacob Scipio) and Maddie (Lou Llobell) who goes on a road trip adventure, but after seeing a horrible car accident are hauntingly pursued by a demonic entity (Joseph Lopez). The film releases in the US on May 22, 2026, amid heavy competition from other horror movies.

Passenger is in danger of getting lost in the shuffle at the box office

Passenger is predicted to make $6 million, or somewhere between $5 million and $10 million, in its domestic opening weekend from May 22 to May 24.

This projection comes from BoxOfficeTheory, which reveals that the film is surrounded by many other options for audiences to see. It comes out on the same day as Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu, which is expected to grab most of the attention this weekend with a $81 million to $96 million domestic weekend forecast. It is unfortunately sandwiched between a pair of horror films, the box office hit Obsession that has already earned $27 million (as of May 20) and A24’s rising star Backrooms that comes out on May 29 and is expected to make somewhere between $25 million and $33 million. This late May and early June theatrical calendar is so tightly packed that Passenger could have trouble standing out.

A separate prediction from BoxOffice Pro has Passenger earning in the range of $7 million to $10 million, which the site says falls “in line with Øvredal’s 2023 historical horror The Last Voyage of the Demeter.” This comparison is not as favorable, though, since that movie was a box office flop, earning $6.5 million in its domestic opener and only $21 million worldwide on a $45 million budget. For Passenger’s full run at the domestic box office, BoxOfficeTheory believes that the film will earn $14 million, or somewhere between $10 million and $25 million, which is one of the lower projected totals for films releasing over the next three weeks.

That said, the production budget for Passenger has not been disclosed (at the time of writing), so it’s unclear what the break-even point will be for the movie. Øvredal is known for creating movies with a relatively low budget by today’s standards, like the $7.4 million for 2020’s Mortal, the $28 million for Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, and the $45 million for The Last Voyage of the Demeter. Since movies usually need to make 2.5 times its budget to make a profit, Passenger could struggle to break even given its projected domestic numbers so far.

In better news, the official trailer for Passenger that was released on YouTube on April 14 has received positive reactions. It has earned over 10 million views and over 39 thousand likes on the platform, with many commenters saying that they were genuinely surprised by one of the trailer’s jump scares and were impressed by its creepy sound design. The two-minute teaser has one frightened driver attempt to escape from a hitchhiker in gray clothing, but he soon spots the entity on the side of the road multiple times before it suddenly appears his passenger seat and screams. The supernatural horror then pursues Tyler and Maddie, but Maddie is able to fend off the threat (for a time at least) by stabbing it with a rear view mirror.

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