Tarot is on its way to recouping its budget despite only earning an 8% score on Rotten Tomatoes. The new horror movie, which was written and directed by Spenser Cohen and Anna Halberg, is based on the 1992 Nicholas Adams novel Horrorscope and follows a group of friends trying to break a deadly curse that they accidentally unleashed from a deck of tarot cards. The movie features an ensemble cast that includes Pennyworth‘s Harriet Slater, Spider-Man: No Way Home‘s Jacob Batalon, and Avantika, who played Karen in the 2024 Mean Girls movie musical.

Per Deadline, the Tarot release is projected to earn a 3-day total of $6.25 million during its opening weekend at the domestic box office. This places it at No. 4 on the chart for the weekend behind the new release The Fall Guy at No. 1, the holdover Challengers at No. 2, and the re-release of Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace at No. 3. However, this total nearly recoups the horror movie’s entire budget, as it only came with a price tag of $8 million.

Is Tarot A Box Office Success?

The 2024 Horror Movie Still Needs To Earn More Money

Although overwhelmingly negative Tarot reviews haven’t prevented it from making money, there is still a way to go before the movie earns a profit. Generally, movies need to make back at least twice their production budgets in order to end up in the black, without factoring in publicity costs. While advertising was light for the horror movie, offsetting a lot of the cost on the back end, its break-even point is nevertheless likely $16 million or more, meaning that it probably still needs to earn an additional $10 million at the box office by the end of its run.

The Tarot movie has already opened or is set to open in quite a few international markets outside of North America, which could help boost its worldwide debut total once those numbers are fully calculated at the end of the weekend. However, it will likely still need to show a decent audience hold in its second weekend if it hopes to cross that break-even point. Because horror movies typically have steep drops after their opening weekends, this may not prove to be possible.

Tarot has at least one more week to work toward that goal, however. It was previously meant to be released on May 10 but was pushed a week earlier to a May 3 debut, giving it a bit of breathing room before the premiere of the competing horror movie The Strangers: Chapter 1 on May 17. With no horror competition during its second weekend, it could be poised to sweep up any horror-hungry audience members in the interim, helping boost its box office total before its theatrical presence dwindles substantially.

Source: Deadline

Tarot (2024)

The plot centers on a group of college friends who start dying in ways that are related to their fortunes after having their tarot cards read. Before their time runs out, they have to work together to uncover the mystery.

Director

Spenser Cohen and Anna Halberg

Release Date

May 3, 2024

Studio(s)

Screen Gems , Alloy Entertainment , Ground Control

Distributor(s)

Sony Pictures Releasing

Writers

Spenser Cohen and Anna Halberg

Cast

Harriet Slater , Jacob Batalon , Avantika Vandanapu , Adain Bradley , Humberly González , Olwen Fouéré , Wolfgang Novogratz , Larsen Thompson

Runtime

92 minutes