Box Office: Lionsgate sets autumn release for The Strangers Chapter 2; Tracking the first film’s theatrical run

Lionsgate is set to release The Strangers: Chapter 2 this fall. As anticipation builds, we take a look at the box office performance of the first film in the franchise.

Written by Seema Sinha , Entertainment Journalist

Published on Mar 25, 2025 | 05:01 PM IST | 3.8K

Picture Courtesy: Lionsgate

Lionsgate’s The Strangers: Chapter 2 will be released on September 26, 2025, replacing Saw XI, which has been moved off the studio’s calendar for the time being.

Amid this development, here’s a look at the box office performance of The Strangers: Chapter 1, which debuted last May.

The third film in The Strangers series—and the first installment of an intended relaunch in the form of a standalone trilogy—was one of Lionsgate’s better-performing movies in 2024, earning USD 35.2 million domestically for a worldwide total of USD 48.1 million.

Directed by Renny Harlin from a screenplay by Alan R. Cohen and Alan Freedland, the film starred Madelaine Petsch and Froy Gutierrez as a couple who encounter three masked psychopathic strangers while on a road trip. As they fight to survive, unimaginable horrors unfold.

Plans for a consecutively shot Strangers trilogy were announced in 2022 by Roy Lee, the original film’s producer. Harlin was picked to helm all three entries the same year, with production beginning soon in Bratislava.

The Strangers: Chapter 1 received negative reviews from critics, holding a 21% score on Rotten Tomatoes.

In Chapter 2, Harlin directs Petsch yet again, who shared in a media statement that the team is working to make the new installment as scary as possible. Gabriel Basso and Ema Horvath star alongside her.

Producers Courtney Solomon, Mark Canton, Christopher Milburn, Gary Raskin, Alastair Burlingham, and Charlie Dombek added to Petsch’s statement, saying Chapter 2 will be the “kind of film that’ll have audiences watching through their fingers.”

“Bringing it to theaters this Halloween season feels perfect, and we can’t wait for everyone to see where the story goes next,” they added.

Screenwriters remain the same as mentioned above.

Meanwhile, Saw XI, per The Hollywood Reporter, is facing a delay because the studio and the producers aren’t on the same page. Writers Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan reportedly turned in a draft a year ago, which they say met the deadline.

Saw X director Kevin Greutert was attached to helm. His 2023 entry opened to a USD 18.3 million domestic gross, which peaked at USD 53.6 million, taking the film’s global cume to USD 112 million.