A blood-soaked parody of children’s television has become the summer’s final box office surprise. “Buddy,” the directorial debut of Casper Kelly, the filmmaker behind the viral Adult Swim short “Too Many Cooks,” is on track to become Roadside Attractions’ first release since the COVID-19 pandemic to clear $20 million domestically.
The R-rated horror comedy follows a Barney-style orange unicorn named Buddy, voiced by Keegan-Michael Key, who turns murderous when children on his show stop following along. Cristin Milioti plays a suburban mother pulled into the character’s nightmare world, while Delaney Quinn portrays a young girl who fights back.
Topher Grace, Michael Shannon and Patton Oswalt round out the cast. Made for roughly $3 million, the film opened Aug. 28 to $5.3 million on 1,258 screens, doubling early tracking estimates, then grew to $5.7 million over the Friday-to-Sunday portion of Labor Day weekend as theaters expanded its footprint. Its running total now sits just under $16 million.
Roadside and Saban Films picked up the film after it premiered in Sundance’s midnight section without attracting an offer from a major studio. Producers Tyler Davidson and Drew Sykes of Low Spark Films, who had previously worked with Roadside on “Emily the Criminal,” helped connect the project to the distributor. Kelly credited the marketing team’s instinct for striking imagery, including a promotional photo of Buddy with fur melted off one side of his body and an axe over his shoulder, for building buzz before anyone had seen the movie.
Rather than release a conventional trailer, Roadside and Saban put out three teasers that leaned on Kelly’s connection to “Too Many Cooks” without revealing the plot’s grislier turns. The studio also moved the release a week earlier than originally planned, opening ahead of Labor Day rather than on it, a scheduling tactic that has worked for wide releases like “Wicked” and “Final Destination: Bloodlines” in past years.
Once “Buddy” reaches $25 million, it will rank as Roadside’s third-highest grossing release ever, trailing only “I Can Only Imagine” and “Manchester by the Sea.” Executives at the distributor say the film’s success, alongside other breakout horror titles this year, points to renewed audience appetite for original stories in theaters rather than franchise sequels alone.
