Neon’s Longlegs has debuted with an impressive $22.6 million USD in the box office. As per Variety , Osgood Perkins’s indie horror film, which stars Nicolas Cage , Maika Monroe, Blair Underwood, Alicia Witt, Michelle Choi-Lee and Dakota Daulby, cost under $10 million USD to produce and used a similar budget for its marketing and distribution.
Longlegs marked Neon’s biggest debut so far and even triumphed over Columbia Pictures’ Fly Me to the Moon, with its marketing inspired by the cult favorite The Blair Witch Project; an old school website detailing the crimes of the film’s serial killer was created, as well as a valid phone number that would play a message from Cage’s evil character. “This has been a really wild ride,” said Elissa Federoff, Neon’s chief distribution officer. “Working with the film’s creative team, we have been able to put together something really special.
When you start with a film as wholly original as this one and you combine it with a fully fleshed out, bespoke marketing campaign, you can achieve something extraordinary.”.