The horror thriller The Woman in the Yard, which is coming our way from Blumhouse Productions, Universal Pictures, and director Jaume Collet-Serra, was once set to reach theatres on January 10, 2025, but then it bumped off the Universal release slate entirely to make room for another Blumhouse / Universal collaboration, the Wolf Man reboot directed by Leigh Whannell. Wolf Man reached theatres on January 17th… and didn’t do as well as expected. The Woman in the Yard was released on March 28th – and it didn’t light the box office on fire, either. Its worldwide box office haul stands at just $21 million. Maybe it will do better now that people can watch it in the comfort of their own homes, as The Woman in the Yard has been given a digital release and is available to watch on the likes of Amazon’s Prime Video.

JoBlo’s own Tyler Nichols was not a fan of the film, writing in his 5/10 review that it left him feeling like he had wasted his time by watching it.

The Woman in the Yard was written by Sam Stefanak, who was previously a staff writer and story editor on the Netflix animated series F Is for Family. The film shows us what happens when a woman in black appears on a family’s front lawn and delivers a chilling warning. No one knows where she came from, what she wants, or when she will leave.

Danielle Deadwyler of The Devil to Pay and Till, Okwui Okpokwasili of The Exorcist: Believer and I Am Legend, and Russell Hornsby of The Hate U Give and Fences star.

Blumhouse founder Jason Blum told Variety that he had been looking for the right project to do with Collet-Serra for over a decade. He said, “The Woman in the Yard is the perfect match, a film that’s ambitious in scope but modest in budget that combines Jaume’s vision with the incomparable Danielle Deadwyler.“

Blum and Stephanie Allain produced the film, while Collet-Serra and Deadwyler executive produced alongside Gabrielle Ebron, Scott Greenberg, and James Mora. Haley Pigman and Jungyoon Kim oversaw the project for Blumhouse.

Collet-Serra previously directed the DC Comics-inspired superhero movie Black Adam, Jungle Cruise, The Commuter, The Shallows, Run All Night, Non-Stop, Unknown, Orphan, Goal II: Living the Dream, and the 2005 version of House of Wax. His most recent film was the Netflix thriller Carry On, which was a big hit for the streaming service and also happened to have Deadwyler in the cast.

Will you be watching The Woman in the Yard now that it has been given a digital release? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

The post The Woman in the Yard: Blumhouse horror thriller gets a digital release appeared first on JoBlo.

Magic mirror on the wall, who’s the fairest of them all? Jason Statham, evidently, as his latest action flick, A Working Man, has topped the weekend box office, poisoning the apple of Snow White, which continued its disappointing run by dropping to the number two spot.

A Working Man once again proved that Jason Statham’s fanbase is a continuously loyal one, as the movie – which reunites him with The Beekeeper director David Ayer – earned $15.2 million in its debut weekend, a chisel in its $40 million budget. For a movie that banks on Statham himself (and not an established franchise like Fast and the Furious), that’s pretty good, landing in The Beekeeper territory.

Now onto Snow White, which opened last week with just $47 million. The live-action (well, mostly) remake of the Disney classic was bound to fall but we didn’t expect it to do so in such embarrassing fashion, as it slipped nearly 70%. While that still put it as the weekend’s runner-up, it only took in another $14.2 million. For a movie that has a budget pegged upwards of $270 million, this is easily one of the biggest red marks for Disney. Hopefully this will make them reconsider their desire to remake their animated classics (although a lot are still on the calendar)…or at least convince Hollywood to stop casting Gal Gadot.

The rest of the box office was far less dramatic, although a curious choice came in at #3: The Chosen: The Last Supper ($11.5 million), which is actually part of an Amazon MGM Studios deal that sees the fifth season of the faith-based series getting a theatrical release before hitting Amazon. It’s an interesting strategy that is evidently paying off, pulling solid numbers for a movie that has a niche audience.

Blumhouse’s The Woman in the Yard snuck through the gate with $9.4 million. That single-digital number isn’t all that far from the movie’s $12 million budget, although the studio’s non-franchise fare usually at least opens in the doubles. Failing to sparkle was Death of a Unicorn, which poked its way into the top 5 with $5.8 million. You’d think that a movie starring Paul Rudd and Jenna Ortega would have fared far better at the box office but with mid reviews, an R rating and nothing really to grab an audience outside of the cast, it just didn’t have the magic to land.

One delight that made the top 10 was Hayao Miyazaki’s Princess Mononoke, now out courtesy of a 4K transfer. No doubt IMAX screens helped boost it to $3.5 million, but I’d also like to think those who were disgusted by OpenAI’s Studio Ghibli-inspired feature headed to the theater as a move of support. And considering its initial domestic run back in 1999 only saw it in 129 theaters, we’re calling this a win all around. Right behind it was Captain America: Brave New World, which, with another $2.75 million to its name, still stands as the highest-grossing movie of 2025 so far.

Meanwhile, Steven Soderbergh’s Black Bag is trying to nudge towards $20 million domestically with its $2.15 million this weekend. Soderbergh isn’t normally a splash at the box office but his movies are almost always worth seeing so good on him for hanging in the top 10 (even if Black Bag won’t recoup its budget, not even earning back half of it on the domestic front). The number nine and 10 spots would go to Bong Joon Ho’s Mickey 17 and the Jack Quaid action flick Novocaine, which is a lot of fun and well worth checking out. Mickey 17 took in $2 with a, while Novocaine earned $1.45 million in its third week. That might seem numb, but considering it has already recouped its budget, any extra bucks are welcome.

As it happens, Chris Bumbray’s box office predictions for this week’s totals underestimated Jason Statham’s ability to put in work. Our editor-in-chief, Chris Bumbray, thought Snow White would retain its top spot, but David Ayer and Jason Statham’s A Working Man hammered its way to the top of the list with a $15.2M debut over Snow White‘s $14.2M. Ah, well. Even a broken clock is right twice a day, right?

Next week will no doubt find a new champ at the box office, as A Minecraft Movie is looking to be a real blockbuster, proving to do well with advanced ticket sales ahead of its release. Other new titles include Lionsgate’s Pedro Pascal-starring Freaky Tales, horror-comedy Hell of a Summer (which is Finn Wolfhard’s co-directorial debut), The Luckiest Man in America (about the infamous Press Your Luck scandal) and Eric Laure (Michael Shannon’s own directorial debut). Mid-week, Screamboat – the latest horror movie taking advantage of copyright lapses – will also open.

What did you catch at the movies this weekend?

The post Weekend Box Office: Jason Statham knocks out Snow White, Blumhouse and more appeared first on JoBlo.

PLOT: A mysterious woman repeatedly appears in a family’s front yard, often delivering chilling warnings and unsettling messages, leaving them to question her identity, motives, and the potential danger she might pose.

REVIEW: I’m not sure there’s any company that’s been struggling in the horror space more than Blumhouse. Their logo is starting to be a tarnished mark on a film, but I’m always rooting for a comeback story. And the marketing for The Woman in the Yard featured some slick visuals and enough mystery that it could go either way. Unfortunately, it never moves past its concept to deliver something that truly makes an impact, with messaging that is questionable at best.

The Woman In The Yard follows a family in the countryside on a day when their power goes out. They struggle with the recent death of their father, and the mother, Ramona (Danielle Deadwyler) has been neglecting her duties for a variety of reasons. This all comes to a head with the strange appearance of a woman sitting in their yard. She’s dressed all in black, draped in fabric, and sitting in a chair; not exactly normal for a yard in the countryside. She proceeds to torment the family, but it certainly takes its time getting there. I’m a fan of a slow burn, but the payoff needs to be worth it, and this is more about performances than anything else.

Danielle Deadwyler is really great as Ramona, but the writing has her in circles. It feels like everything is so mapped out that it’s just about letting the characters catch up. With the death of his father, Ramona’s son, Taylor, is trying to take on the role of the “man of the house.” But he’s only a young teen, and he’s clearly very misguided in what that means. Uneven acting and some really questionable character choices make Taylor a frustrating character to deal with.

I’m not sure what it is about Blumhouse movies in particular that love their loud noises so much, but dear lord, does someone need to tell them there are other ways to scare people. The usage of sound here was strange, with a full stretch of dog barks that made me wish my ears had an OFF setting. And it’s all for a payoff that doesn’t even ultimately matter. As much as the film is a slow burn, there’s hardly any tension that exists. It’s simply a couple of well-done shadow scares and a harrowing psychological breakdown that is completely betrayed by the ending. Deadwyler really deserved better than this.

Director Jaume Collet-Serra has always had an interesting visual style, and he goes the Sam Raimi route here. At times. We get some fun Dutch angles and slick camera work. But those moments are few and far between. There are some good visuals with the woman in the yard looking quite striking. And I really enjoyed the shadow element that came into play. They just don’t use it to any significant degree. There are some implications of the Woman having some Nosferatu-like shadow powers, but it’s hardly ever utilized outside of the visuals. And then it seems to want to have its cake and eat it too, by having both a psychological element, as well as an actual entity that’s doing the dirty work. Makes it all convoluted and messy.

I’m sure there are multiple ways to take the ending of The Woman In The Yard, but none of them are satisfying. If anything, the only word that comes to mind is offensive. It abandons Ramona’s journey of redemption and instead opts for a stupid ending tag. I was rather middle of the road, mostly focusing on Deadwyler’s great performance. Then that ending hit, and I couldn’t help but feel like I’d just completely wasted 90 minutes. This is becoming increasingly common with Blumhouse, but it definitely had me tricked at times. What seemed like an interesting psychological thriller devolves into jump scares and dog barks.

The Woman in the Yard

BELOW AVERAGE

5

The post The Woman in the Yard review: another Blumhouse dud appeared first on JoBlo.