Just days after its release, Jordan Peele’s Us is already breaking horror records.
The much-anticipated film serves as Jordan’s follow-up to his critically-acclaimed directorial debut Get Out, which was nominated for three Oscars, and made him the first African-American winner in the Best Original Screenplay category.
Released in both the UK and across the pond on Friday, it has had the highest-grossing opening weekend for an original horror film, pulling in $70.3 million (more than £53 million) in the States (via Entertainment Weekly).
The 2018 hit A Quiet Place, which previously held the record, is now at number two, having pulled in $50 million (roughly £38 million) when it debuted last year.
As well as being a hit commercially, Us has also gone down a storm with critics, with an impressive 94% score on the reviews site Rotten Tomatoes.
In our own HuffPost Verdict, we wrote: “With just two films under his belt, it might feel a little premature to say it, but the sheer quality of Get Out and now Us are a sure sign that Jordan Peele is the new king of horror, not that he should confine himself to just one genre.”
Us tells the story of a family, led by Lupita Nyong’o, whose idyllic summer holiday is disrupted by the uninvited arrival of a group of dopplegängers, hellbent on terrorising and eventually killing them all.
And even though awards season is barely even over for 2019, there’s already a lot of Oscar buzz around Lupita’s dual roles of Adelaide and Red, with many suggesting she could be about to land her second nomination, having previously scooped Best Supporting Actress for 12 Years A Slave back in 2014.
Despite being an Academy Award winner with an impressive and varied CV, Us marks Lupita’s first time in a leading role in a feature-length film.
Us is in cinemas now.