Leigh Whannell has gradually been making a splash in the horror scene. He recently made a huge hit with The Invisible Man, Blumhouse’s first attempt at reinventing one of the most iconic Universal Monsters. His film prior to that, however, didn’t quite become as big of a theatrical success – but still made a decent profit. While The Invisible Man made $143 million on a $7 million budget, his preceding film Upgrade managed $17 million on a $3 million budget. This number is also down from his directorial debut, Insidious: Chapter 3, which made $113 million on a $11 million budget. Nevertheless, Upgrade is having a bit of a comeback right now via Netflix.
As revealed via FlixPatrol, Upgrade is currently climbing the ranks over on Netflix. In fact, as of this writing, it’s now actually managed to become the thirteenth most watched movie globally on the streaming service. This happened out of nowhere, too, which is quite a feat for a little underdog of a movie like Upgrade. It should be pointed out, though, that these are the global charts and the film is not currently on Netflix in the United States at the time of this writing – but it is on Hulu. That can, of course, change and most likely will.
While it might’ve not been the box office blockbuster like Whannell’s films that came before and after the project, it’s still managed to have a hefty shelf life of its own. And, in the long term, that’s a seriously good sign for a movie just as much as its box office success.
Blumhouse obviously recognized this as well. While it doesn’t seem like Upgrade will get any kind of theatrical sequel, at least not any time soon, there is some good news on the horizon for fans. Blumhouse announced last year that they greenlit a new television series which will pick up where the movie Upgrade left off – albeit with a new cast. However, Leigh Whannell will return for the series as both showrunner and director. The following setup for the series was previously revealed:
“Upgrade the series picks up a few years after the events of the film and broadens the universe with an evolved version of STEM and a new host – imagining a world in which the government repurposes STEM to help curb criminal activity.”
Leigh Whannell will be working alongside producer Tim Walsh and writers James Roland and Krystal Siv Houghton for the series. While not much has been announced since then, this explosive comeback on Netflix is surely going to be a good sign for what’s to come. Hopefully we’ll have more details on the future of Upgrade soon.