‘The House Next Door: Meet The Blacks 2’ Debut Weekend Passes $1M, Tops Specialty Box Office

Hidden Empire Film Group’s comedy/horror romp The House Next Door: Meet the Blacks 2 scared up a $1.064M opening weekend (per screen average of $2,533) with writer-director Deon Taylor and his team huddling right now over where and how much to expand the run — but expand it they will. Taylor’s thrilled with the $$ although he and others in the indie space acknowledged Sunday that ongoing distancing restrictions in key New York and LA is a major bummer.

“We felt that the most this weekend, because we sold out theaters. People couldn’t see it. They had to come back later, or the next day,” Taylor told Deadline. The film needed more capacity. “That’s the very next thing that we have to figure out – how to fill up the theaters.”

Sold-out shows were testament the movie’s “core audience that never gets films served to them,” he said. Hidden Empire oversaw a highly-targeted rollout and marketing push to a Black demo for the film with Mike Epps as Carl Black facing off with a neighbor from hell (Katt Williams), a pimp who may also be a vampire. It’s a follow on Meet The Blacks from 2016.

It’s not on PVOD. “I feel sorry for anybody that bets against the theatrical world. It’s America’s pastime. You might not be able to afford to go on a trip or a fancy restaurant but you can afford to take your friends and wife or girlfriend and go to a movie,” Taylor said.