‘Late Night With The Devil’ makes $666,666 in opening weekend

Horror film Late Night With The Devil has made an apt figure of $666,666 in just one day over the weekend.

The new film – which comes from directors Colin and Cameron Cairnes – stars David Dastmalchian as a late night talk show host who invites an apparently possessed girl onto his TV show.

The film debuted in US cinemas over the weekend, and according to Variety made the coincidentally devilish number of $666,666 (£527,452) on Sunday (March 24), with an overall haul of $2.8million (£2.22million).

“This weekend’s release of Late Night With the Devil set fire to our old opening record,” said Scott Shooman, head of AMC Networks Films, which includes the film’s distributor IFC Films. “[It] continues to showcase that there is still potential for highly reviewed, intelligent auteur films in movie theaters across all genres.”

The big box office winner over the weekend was Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, taking in $45.2million (£35.7million), while new Sydney Sweeney horror Immaculate made $5.3million (£4.19million).

While Late Night With The Devil has drawn acclaim from critics, it has also sparked controversy over the use of AI in creating a few images used in the film, with many sharing criticism on social media.

The Cairnes brothers responded to the backlash in a statement to Variety last week, saying: “In conjunction with our amazing graphics and production design team, all of whom worked tirelessly to give this film the ’70s aesthetic we had always imagined, we experimented with AI for three still images which we edited further and ultimately appear as very brief interstitials in the film.

“We feel incredibly fortunate to have had such a talented and passionate cast, crew and producing team go above and beyond to help bring this film to life. We can’t wait for everyone to see it for themselves this weekend.”

"It's an important conversation. We gotta have it."

Just finished a Zoom interview with David Dastmalchian for LATE NIGHT WITH THE DEVIL.

Asked him about the use of the 3 AI images in the film. Filming was a couple years ago. Premiered at SXSW in 2023. All prior to the strike. pic.twitter.com/4kQCAqTikI

— Kevin McCarthy (@KevinMcCarthyTV) March 21, 2024

Dastmalchian also responded to the controversy, telling journalist Kevin McCarthy that the backlash is a “sad” development, while also praising the “awesome graphics design team and all the artists were working on making this film so perfect”.

“But I get it,” he added. “I’m absolutely in a place right now where that is something that we’ve learned so much about in the last few years since we made this movie.”

He added of the Cairnes’ response: “I think they said it really well, and I stand by what they said and I completely stand by this movie as a thoroughly original piece of work that so many man hours went into this incredible artistic craftsmanship to be set in this world. So it’s a good conversation to have. It’s an important conversation. We’ve got to have it.”

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