Skinamarink, the indie horror film that received a wide release after going viral on TikTok, has achieved an impressive box office result at the end of its first week in theaters. The experimental horror film is the feature directorial debut of Canadian filmmaker Kyle Edward Ball. The film, which is presented through a variety of shots that avoid showing the faces of the main characters, follows two siblings who wake up to find that their father is missing and all the exterior doors and windows in their home have vanished, leaving them to their own devices while a mysterious entity lurks in the shadows.

Per Bloody Disgusting, Skinamarink has now earned $1 million in the North American box office. While that number can't exactly compete with the weekend's big blockbusters like Avatar: The Way of Water and M3GAN, Skinmarink only cost $15,000, meaning that this total has already multiplied the film's budget 67 times. Even without breaking into the box office Top 10, this is a tremendous achievement for a film so consciously designed to be polarizing and not necessarily appealing to wide audiences.

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Skinamarink Takes the Indie Horror Box Office Baton from Terrifier 2

A creepy toy telephone peers out of the darkness in Skinamarink

While the box office was still suffering the pandemic blues in 2022, the horror genre proved its ability to stand toe to toe with tentpole films like Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and Avatar: The Way of Water. Horror flicks that reached No. 1 over the course of the year included the legacy sequels Scream 2022 and Halloween Ends, but the slate was also dominated by original films including Barbarian, Nope, Smile, and The Invitation. Both Nope and Smile ended up in the Top 20 films of the year in the domestic box office as well, besting franchise flicks like Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore.

However, despite horror proving itself as one of the sturdiest box office genres in the modern age, it dominated the indie sphere as well. Last year, the slasher sequel Terrifier 2, which followed the continued exploits of the serial killer Art the Clown, opened in 770 theaters, eventually expanding to 1,550 screens on its way to raking in a total of $13.5 million worldwide. The low-budget film only cost $250,000, building its huge profits thanks to audience interest off the back of reports of Terrifier 2 screenings causing people to fall ill and pass out due to the film's gory and intense nature. Skinamarink has also successfully harnessed online word-of-mouth to similar results, proving that it is a worthy successor to Terrifier 2.

While it is incredibly difficult to predict what future indie horror feature could possibly be the next Terrifier 2, the box office is certainly showing that the film market is still hungry for scrappy and compelling fright flicks, no matter what they cost or where they come from. Not every feature has the capacity to capture this kind of audience, as the 2022 license-dodging Grinch horror film The Mean One proved with its disappointing take in December. However, distributors willing to take a chance on a lesser-known title might just find that they have a substantial hit on their hands, even with something as seemingly audience-proof as Skinamarink.

More: The Grinch Horror Movie Makes Terrifier 2's Success More Impressive

Source: Bloody Disgusting