Even by modern standards where virtually every moderately successful low budget horror gets multiple sequels, The Purge has done very well for itself, and is now regarded as one of hit factory Blumhouse’s most bankable brands. The first installment was a low budget home invasion thriller that cost just $3 million to make, but went on to earn close to $90 million at the box office.
That kind of profit margin made more outings almost inevitable, and the scope has gradually widened with each new outing. We’ve seen two direct follow-ups, a prequel and a TV series that ran for two seasons before being canceled last year, with the four theatrical movies so far raking in over $446 million globally on combined production costs of $35 million.
The Forever Purge was initially scheduled for release last summer, but was delayed for an entire year as a result of the Coronavirus pandemic, and will now hit the big screen in July. And despite the fact that it’s already been labeled as the final entry in the series, Anarchy and Election Year star Frank Grillo has revealed that he’s spoken with creator James DeMonaco about a potential sixth outing.
“We are talking, DeMonaco and I, another Purge movie. He reached out to me not too long ago and Sébastian K. Lemercier, the producer and they’re like, ‘What do you think?’, and I’m like, ‘What do you think?’, and they’re like, ‘We talked to Universal and we’ll see Leo Barnes in the Purge if we can come up with something great’. I said, ‘I’m in. I’ll do it in a heartbeat’.”
We know better at this stage than to believe any horror movie that claims to be the last one in the franchise, but it’s still unusual for talks to be happening before the so-called ‘final’ chapter has even been released. Quite how Grillo is going to find the time to return to The Purge is another question altogether, too, especially when the 55 year-old has seven movies in various stages of development and heads back into the recording booth next month to finish up his work as Crossbones for Marvel’s What If…?.