Black Phone 2 VOD Release Date Announced

Despite the movie being in the midst of a successful box office run, Black Phone 2 is already about to hit VOD. The follow-up to the 2021 horror hit sees the return of Mason Thames’ Finney and Madeleine McGraw’s Gwen as they investigate a mountainous camp tied to nightmares the latter is having tied to prior victims of Ethan Hawke’s Grabber, resulting in his vicious, and supernatural, return.

Once again co-written by Scott Derrickson and C. Robert Cargill, and directed by the former, The Black Phone 2 saw a dip in reception from the first film, but still generally positive, holding a 72% approval rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes. It’s also performed well at the box office, turning around Blumhouse’s streak of underperformers to become their highest-grossing project of the year thus far.

Now, Universal Pictures has announced Black Phone 2‘s VOD release date being that of November 4, with the horror sequel later debuting on 4K Ultra-HD, Blu-ray and DVD on December 23. The news comes just over two weeks after the movie hit theaters to solid reviews and has been performing well at the box office, having thus far grossed over $105 million against its $30 million production budget.

Universal generally has a habit of announcing the VOD release dates for their films two weeks after they hit theaters, though the actual value of doing so has proven something of a mixed bag. For a film like M3GAN 2.0, whose box office notably floundered when put up against the likes of F1 and Elio, it made sense for the studio to bring the horror sequel to digital platforms sooner in order to make more money that what it was getting in theaters.

For Black Phone 2, however, the move comes as something of a surprise considering the film is not entirely slowing down at the box office. Having dethroned Tron: Ares domestically in its opening weekend, this past weekend saw it in a heated contest with Colleen Hoover’s Regretting You, also starring Thames, with the latter just narrowly winning the No. 1 spot by $1 million.

With Black Phone 2 having already more than reached a profitable margin, and the Halloween season officially at an end, there is some merit in Universal bringing the film to VOD platforms now. Plus, with Thames’ How to Train Your Dragon remake being the first in the franchise to cross the $250 million domestic mark, even as the movie was simultaneously available on digital platforms, there is still a chance the horror sequel could continue to perform well at the box office.