Zach Cregger is riding a career high. His Resident Evil reboot broke franchise records at the box office last weekend, and now an earlier hit from the filmmaker is switching streaming platforms as October begins.
Zach Cregger’s Barbarian is leaving HBO Max and returning to Hulu
Barbarian, the 2022 horror film, lands on Hulu on October 1, taking it off HBO Max. The move closes a familiar loop. Disney originally planned to send the film straight to Hulu, but strong test-screening feedback pushed the studio toward a theatrical release on September 9, 2022. A long-standing contract between 20th Century Fox and HBO then routed the film to HBO Max first. Disney later announced a Hulu release for June 25, 2023.
The story follows a young woman who travels to Detroit for a job interview and books a rental home. She arrives late at night to find the house double-booked, with a man already staying there. Against her better judgment, she stays the night, and the situation grows far stranger than she expects. Georgina Campbell, Bill Skarsgård and Justin Long star. Cregger wrote and directed the film, which 20th Century Studios and New Regency produced
The film’s success helped launch Cregger’s rise in horror. Barbarian collected more than $46 million on a budget of under $5 million. His follow-up, Weapons, won an Oscar and grossed $270 million worldwide.
Resident Evil extends that run. The reboot opened to $60 million in North America and $108.3 million worldwide, the biggest debut of Cregger’s career. It also holds a 96% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Cregger has joked about where Barbarian could go next. “There’s a sequel I joke about that I would love to watch, which would be The Mother surviving her gunshot and having to integrate into society,” he told The Hollywood Reporter in 2022.
Hulu subscribers can now revisit the original from October 1.