Don't Breathe

Fede Álvarez noted that making the film was, in some ways, a reaction to his debut film Evil Dead (2013), specifically the criticisms that the film had too much blood, focused too much on shocking the audience, and was a remake. In response, Álvarez decided to make Don't Breathe, an original story that contained less blood and focused more on suspense over shocking audiences.[8] He wanted to avoid making a film dealing with the supernatural, as he felt that was too trendy.[8]

Choosing to make the antagonist blind was a result of deliberately taking abilities away from him; Álvarez explained,

"Sometimes you naturally give them powers and make them more menacing than a normal person, so we thought what if we do the other way around and take his eyes out and make him a blind person."[8]

Álvarez has called the film an "exercise in reversal" noting that the film deliberately subverts tropes such as the fact that the house in question is a "nice house on a scary street" as opposed to the opposite, or that the movie is a home invasion story told from the point of view of the invaders.[9]

On May 1, 2015, Daniel Zovatto joined the cast.[6] On May 22, 2015, Dylan Minnette was cast in the film, and on June 18, 2015, Jane Levy and Stephen Lang joined the cast.

Principal photography began on June 29, 2015.[10] Though the film is set in Detroit, it was primarily shot in Hungary; only a few views of Detroit were actually filmed there.[2] Álvarez estimated that the film cost roughly half as much as Evil Dead, and welcomed the change, as it allowed for less studio interference.[8] Filming wrapped in August 2015.[11]

On review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 88% based on 241 reviews, with an average rating of 7.30/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Don't Breathe smartly twists its sturdy premise to offer a satisfyingly tense, chilling addition to the home invasion genre that's all the more effective for its simplicity."[13] Metacritic, which assigns a rating to reviews, gives the film a score of 71 out of 100, based on 39 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[14] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.[15]

Dennis Harvey of Variety called Don't Breathe "a muscular exercise in brutal, relentless peril that should please genre fans."[2] Jim Vejvoda of IGN awarded 8.8/10 and wrote, "Director Fede Álvarez delivers a lean, very mean thrill ride with Don't Breathe, tapping into several primal human fears and further establishing himself as one of the genre filmmakers to keep an eye on in the years ahead."[16] Peter Travers of Rolling Stone gave the film 3 out of 4 stars, writing: "This is some weird, twisted shit. Don't groan when I say Don't Breathe is a home-invasion thriller. Director Fede Álvarez is as good as it gets when it comes to playing with things that go bump in the night."[17] Kyle Smith of the New York Post also gave the film 3 out of 4 stars, saying, "Apart from its thin characters and occasional trite moments, as well as a silly attempt to set up a sequel, Don't Breathe is just about perfect."[18]

Amy Nicholson of MTV wrote in a positive review, "Álvarez knows the size of his ambitions. He's written one great ghoul, surrounded him with targets, and simply let him let rip."[19] The Verge called it "an impressive script-flip from the 1967 classic Wait Until Dark".[20] Álvarez says he wrote the script before watching Wait Until Dark.[21] Jim Hemphill of Filmmaker Magazine called it "the best American horror film in twenty years."[22]

Don't Breathe grossed $89.2 million in North America and $67.9 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $157.1 million, against a production budget of $9.9 million.[3] Due to its low production budget, the film became a sleeper hit and was considered a large financial success, with a net profit of $59.1 million, when factoring together all expenses and revenues.[23][24][25] For Sony Pictures, it became their second late-summer surprise hit of 2016, following Sausage Party.[26]

Don't Breathe was released in the United States and Canada on August 26, 2016, and was originally projected to gross $11–14 million from 3,051 theaters in its opening weekend, with some estimates going as high as $20 million,[27][28] and many publications noting it could be the first film to dethrone Suicide Squad from the top of the box office.[29] It made $1.9 million from Thursday night preview screenings, at 2,500 theaters,[15][30] and $10 million on its opening day.[31] It fell just 1.5% on Saturday, earning $9.8 million, which is uncommon as R-rated horror films tend to do well on their first day and drop sharply in revenue from their second day onward.[15] Compared to other 2016 horror films, Lights Out had a drop of 22%, while The Conjuring 2 fell by 15%.[15] In total, it grossed $26.4 million in its opening weekend, far above initial projections by 120% and easily displacing Suicide Squad to take the top spot at the box office. It was the biggest original horror debut of the year (besting 10 Cloverfield Lane), the biggest Screen Gems August opening ever (beating Takers) and the biggest debut for an R-rated original horror film since The Conjuring in 2013.[15][32] Following its first-place finish, the film continued to dominate the box office for the second weekend, earning $15.8 million and an estimated $19.7 million for the four day Labor Day holiday, one of the best numbers ever for the long holiday weekend.[33] As a result, it became only the second horror film to top the weekend box office two weekends in a row since 2014.[34] The second weekend drop was only -40%, a remarkable feat considering the fact that horror films typically tumble at least 60% or more in their second weekend. The gradual drop was due to the holiday. It took only 11 days to surpass Álvarez's previous film, the Evil Dead reboot.[35][36]

Although the film fell to third place in its third weekend as a result of being overtaken by Sully and When the Bough Breaks, it continued to witness strong holds by falling 49% after adding another 333 theaters.[26][37]

Outside North America, the film's biggest debuts were in the United Kingdom ($1.3 million), Germany ($1.3 million), Brazil ($1.2 million) Mexico ($1.2 million) and Australia ($1 million).[38][39][40][41] It scored the third biggest opening of the year for a Hollywood film in Korea with $4.5 million.[42] It's on pace to become the highest-grossing horror film in Uruguay.[40]