Foo Fighters’ Metal Horror Movie ‘Studio 666’ Has Unsurprisingly Bombed In Theaters

Foo Fighters’ new slasher-comedy flick, Studio 666, had a rather insignificant opening weekend at the box office. While it happened to be the only new movie to open nationwide this past week, the film reeled in less than $2 million with a total gross of $1.58 million domestically. According to Box Office Mojo, Studio 666 still managed to land at number 8 for the weeks highest grossing movies, despite being screened at a total of 2,306 theaters. However, when taking into consideration a number of key details, this box office ‘flop’ isn’t much of a surprise, nor does it represent the crux of what Foo Fighters (moreover Dave Grohl) were trying to convey with Studio 666.

First and foremost, the film never seemed marketed or intended for a large audience. Take away the horror and comedic guest appearances from Whitney Cummings, Will Forte and Jeff Garlin, and much of what’s left is a film aspiring to be a cult classic amongst rock and heavy music lovers. In fact, based solely off its marketing which was rather limited in of itself, Studio 666 looks to hit a similar beat to like minded cult films like Tenacious D and Spinal Tap. Between its cameos by Slayer’s Kerry King, a plot revolving around a fictitious metal band Dream Widow, and some hilariously bad acting from Foo Fighters members, Studio 666 is a dream come true for a rather specific group of people.

As a matter of fact, even the film’s main star Dave Grohl has openly discussed the low-key nature of putting the project together. According to Loudwire, during the writing process for Foo Fighters’ 2021 record Medicine At Midnight, the band had already rented a house to record the album when Grohl received a call about doing the movie. “I thought, well, hold on a second, we already have the house. We might as well just set up some cameras once we’re done with the record and make a really low-budget slasher flick,” Grohl stated. “After decades of ridiculous music videos and numerous music documentaries under our collective belts, it was finally time to take it to the next level — a full-length feature horror-comedy film.”

Overall, it’s quite clear that Studio 666 was intended to be a fun passion project from Dave Grohl and at best a cult classic for rock and cheesy horror movie lovers. The film’s gross at the box office gross certainly doesn’t undermine what it aspired to be, and that’s in part what actually makes Studio 666 so great.