Universal Pictures Would Be Downright Foolish To Not Make The Purge 6
For a decade now, "The Purge" has been one of the more reliable horror franchises at the box office. Between five movies and two seasons of a TV show, creator James DeMonaco has managed to craft a grizzly vision of America's future where all crime is legal for one small period each year. It's an on-the-nose social commentary that has proved time and time again to entertain the masses. It just works. So, one would think that "The Purge 6," which DeMonaco has already written, would be close to an instant green light at Universal Pictures. On the contrary, the project is on hold right now. The studio would be, in my humble opinion, foolish to not make this movie and make it very soon.
DeMonaco, who has written every film in the franchise to date in addition to directing the first three entries, recently spoke with the folks at The Playlist and explained that Universal has some issues with the budget for the script he turned in. While we'll get into the story he's cooked up in a minute, here's what he had to say about the status of the project:
"There are concerns about budget, but it definitely presents a fractured America ... The America I present in 'Purge 6' is where we all are separated by ideology and sexual preference. So, the states are broken down in different ways. It's written, it's in [Universal's] hands. I think they're scared about the budget."
What we know is that Frank Grillo is supposed to return as Leo Barnes, a character that anchored both "The Purge: Anarchy" and "The Purge: Election Year." DeMonaco also wants to return to the director's chair to help finish what he started. That feels like a good bet. But the filmmaker also appears to want to paint on a bigger canvas, which is creating some tension.
Everything is in place
To be fair, I have argued a lot very recently about Hollywood being more reasonable when it comes to franchise film budgets. We can't have movies like "Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny" costing $300 million become the new norm. But that's an extreme example. It all needs to work relatively as well. Universal, for example, way overestimated the audience for "Renfield" earlier this year, giving the Dracula-centric horror film a far too high $65 million budget. That didn't pan out by any means.
That having been said, "The Purge" films have been unbelievably profitable for the studio up to this point. To date, the five entries have grossed $535 million worldwide against combined budgets of just $53 million. That is more than 10 times in regard to the rate of return (not accounting for marketing). Even 2021's "The Forever Purge," which was released when the pandemic was a much bigger hurdle to clear, managed to make $77 million against an $18 million budget. Not to mention what it made on VOD, or what Universal was able to make by selling people like me a new Blu-ray box set with all five movies in it.
All of this to say, there is absolutely money to be made here. I have no idea what, precisely, DeMonaco is asking for with the budget. But even if it's $25 million — a full $7 million more than the previous entry — it's extremely difficult to imagine the movie losing money, given how well these movies have done with such consistency. The upside, it would seem, is far greater for Universal so long as this isn't a larger-scale $60 million movie or something along those lines. If it is, I would encourage both sides to come to the table and find a compromise.
Horror is hitting hard right now
The fact of the matter is that horror is hitting particularly hard at the box office right now. "Smile" ($217 million worldwide/$17 million budget), "M3GAN" ($180 million worldwide/$12 million budget), "Scream VI" ($169 million worldwide/$33 million budget), and "Evil Dead Rise" ($146 million box office/$17 million budget) serve as just a few examples of recent hits in the genre. Both originals and franchise entries are raking in the dough, with "Insidious: The Red Door" recently dethroning "Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny" on the charts in a particularly impressive performance. Horror keeps winning.
So yes, even with a larger budget (within reason), Universal should have every motivation to make this movie. The only other consideration to make is what, precisely, DeMonaco has cooked up. The filmmaker spoke recently about his pitch for "The Purge 6" saying "I was extrapolating on the discord and taking it to its furthest, as far as you can take that idea of what's going on, I feel, in the country and the political landscape" while saying it depicts a "broken America." Elaborating on that, he explained:
"We're remapping. ['The Purge 6'] is about the remapping of America based on ideology, sexuality, and religion, so that the states are broken down. You have your Black state, you have your gay state, you have your white evangelical state. And it's really a broken country."
So, admittedly, that sounds pretty politically charged and like a big swing, even by the standards set by the previous movies. Even so, audiences have demonstrated that they will turn up for Purge-related cinematic bloodshed. Give DeMonaco some money and try to cash one last big check before the window closes. Get while the gettin' is good, as it were.