Are we talking a major risk here, or have Universal kicked a major goal? January has never really been viewed as a month that should have horror movies dropping, they have in the past, but let’s be completely honest here the Studios are focused on family friendly fare, which has left a hole in the cinema schedule for those of us not interested in the next Disney Princess rehash. So how successful can a horror flick be in Australia in January 2014.

Nosferatu dropped in position four on the back of a $2.3 million result, which when including preview screenings goes up to a highly successful $3.2 million total gross. Now that’s already a success in horror box office terms, and is a stunning result in general given the competition. Surprisingly the vampire flick had the biggest per screen result of the weekend with a very solid $9,007 average over a solid 258 screen release strategy. Hold onto your knickers folks, repeating that was the highest per screen average of the weekend, and certainly makes a statement about how horror flicks are playing recently.

Of course the first weekend might all be front end load, and Nosferatu might crash and burn through weekend two. I kind of think it won’t and think we are looking at perhaps a -40% hold, which is more than successful in dark genre terms. Fingers crossed we get that result, or even something better. On the bright side the movie doesn’t have much horror competition, more on the release schedule for the dark genre later folks. For now, let's celebrate a major win.