Opening Weekend Forecast: £500K – £750K
Theatrical Total Forecast: £2M – £3M
British cinema advertising company Pearl & Dean has released its predicted opening range for the chimp horror thriller Primate, out this weekend in the U.K. and Ireland from Paramount Pictures.
Horror remains a dependable genre at the box office, with slasher films in particular having a strong built-in audience. The Scream franchise (which shares Primate‘s 18 age rating) has been going strong in recent years, with Scream (2022) pulling in £7.6 million and Scream 6 at £7.8 million in the U.K. and Ireland. 2025 also saw solid runs for The Black Phone 2 (£3.7 million) and I Know What You Did Last Summer (£2.8 million).
Primate‘s high-concept hook of an ape on the rampage will also help sell it to audiences. Elizabeth Banks’ Cocaine Bear (2023) racked up £5.6 million in box office receipts and 2025’s The Monkey (based on the Stephen King novella) totalled £3.1 million.
Reaction for the film has been extremely positive, with audiences and critics alike touting it as silly, gory, good fun. Furthermore, another horror title doesn’t open wide in the U.K. Ireland until the February 13 release of Whistle, which—combined with good word of mouth—should help Primate with its week-to-week holdovers.
However, Primate will be facing other tough competition from the more prestigious and well-known horror flick 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple and the action film Shelter, led by the ever-dependable Jason Statham. Primate‘s 18-age rating also cuts out the lucrative teenage market, which adds a cap to our overall expectations.
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