No One Will Save You is the new hit horror movie from 20th Century Studios, but its release proves that Disney didn’t learn from a mistake it made in 2022. Available to stream on Hulu, No One Will Save You stars Kaitlyn Dever as Bryn, an anxiety-ridden woman who must battle an alien that has found its way into her home. The movie has quickly become a streaming hit and is being heavily talked about due to its shocking ending and how it only has one line of dialogue in its 93 minutes. No One Will Save You is also a critical hit with a 74% score on Rotten Tomatoes.
Disney has struggled with horror movies in 2023, but the surprise September hit has seemingly ended that cold streak. No One Will Save You is an alien abduction movie that’s just as terrifying as it is intriguing, and while streaming numbers for the film have yet to be revealed, it likely did better than expected following the film’s overnight fanfare. However, though the movie is a success for Disney, that’s exactly why the studio repeated one of its biggest mistakes of 2022. While Disney is finally releasing Pixar movies in theaters again, No One Will Save You is exclusive to Hulu, which is a huge step backward for the studio.
Disney Repeated Prey’s Streaming Release Mistake With No One Will Save You
The release strategy for No One Will Save You repeats the same mistake Disney made with 2022’s Prey. The Predator prequel offered a refreshing approach to the franchise and received overwhelmingly positive reviews. Prey was even more positively received than No One Will Save You, as it has a “Certified Fresh” 94% score on Rotten Tomatoes. Nevertheless, despite the response, Prey was still a Hulu exclusive. Given how acclaimed the movie was and how general audiences responded just as positively, Prey could have been a huge box office hit for Disney had it been released theatrically.
Along with being the highest-rated Predator movie on Rotten Tomatoes — even higher than the original movie — Prey had a relatively modest budget of $65 million. If Disney had spent money on marketing for a theatrical release, there’s no doubt that Prey would have broken even and even become successful. Even after the positive response to the movie, Disney could have made a last-minute decision to release the movie theatrically. That’s what Warners Bros. did with Evil Dead Rise, which was originally intended to be released straight to Max, and the horror movie made an extra $146 million (via Box Office Mojo) that it wouldn’t have made otherwise.
It was well-documented at the time that Disney made a huge mistake by not giving Prey a theatrical release. Since then, Warner Bros. released Evil Dead Rise theatrically, and between Disney’s own mistake and looking at other streamers finding success putting their films on the big screen, Disney had no excuse not to theatrically release No One Will Save You. In that respect, by not theatrically releasing No One Will Save You in theaters, Disney is potentially leaving tens — maybe hundreds — of millions of dollars on the table.
No One Will Save You Could Have Redeemed Disney’s 2023 Horror Box Office
Disney has struggled at the box office in 2023, as even its big-budget movies like Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny haven’t broken even. Disney’s biggest failure of the year is Haunted Mansion, which bombed at the box office, grossing just $107 million against a $157 million budget (via The Numbers). The Boogeyman wasn’t a huge success either, as the 2023 Disney horror movie barely broke even. However, No One Will Save You could’ve redeemed Disney’s recent horror movie failures. No One Will Save You had a relatively small budget of $22 million, and it would only have needed around $55 million to break even, which would’ve been easy.
Given that No One Will Save You was released on Hulu when there wasn’t much competition at the box office (Expend4bles had a disastrous opening weekend), there’s no doubt that the movie would have been a box office hit. The only major horror competition No One Will Save You would have faced is Saw X, which is scheduled for release on September 29. Given that Halloween is around the corner, No One Will Save You could have had legs at the box office and stayed in theaters past November, too.
