Justin Tipping’s subversive horror movie Him has opened to mixed reviews and an underwhelming box office performance, which is bad news for producer Jordan Peele, who’s been having an unlucky year so far. The director reportedly narrowly lost the bidding war for the rights to Zach Cregger’s Weapons (via ᴅᴇᴀᴅline), which went on to become one of 2025’s biggest successes.

There are several versions of the story regarding Peele’s bid for Weapons, with some sources claiming that he was furious about losing the rights and others suggesting he stepped back from the project over budget concerns. Either way, it’s clear that Peele was determined to work on Cregger’s promising script – and the underwhelming Him makes the loss sting even more.

Him’s Reviews And Box Office Are Much Worse Than Weapons’

After losing out on Weapons, Peele turned his sights on Him — another dark, original script from horror newcomers Justin Tipping, Skip Bronkie, and Zack Akers. Admittedly, the concept sounds promising; when a football prospect is pushed to his limits, he’s forced to decide how far he’s willing to go to achieve greatness.

Unfortunately, reviews for Him have been predominantly negative so far. The film is currently sitting at 29% on Rotten Tomatoes, with its Metacritic score barely edging that out at 38. This is a record low for Jordan Peele, whose movies are typically regarded as “prestige horror,” and whose credits as producer have been equally consistent.

Him has also struggled at the box office since its release last week, pulling in just $6.47 million on Friday, with an estimated $13.5 million opening weekend (via ᴅᴇᴀᴅline). While this should be enough for the film to break even on its alleged budget of $27 million, it’s certainly not the huge success that Monkeypaw Productions will have been hoping for.

After the bitter loss of Weapons back in 2023, there was a lot of pressure riding on Him to get Peele and his studio back on their feet and prove that the loss wasn’t too damaging. Unfortunately, it has now proven the opposite. Weapons was a mᴀssive success both critically and at the box office, accomplishing everything that Him probably won’t.

While Peele and Monkeypaw will certainly bounce back from this disappointment, it’s a deflating loss all the same. Warner Bros. has been having an incredible year, with movies like Sinners, Weapons, and F1 delivering strong commercial performances, and it’s hard not to regard Him‘s box office disappointment in this context. Peele may now wish he’d bid higher on Cregger’s film.