By Abhi Parasher
The Reef: Stalked, the latest genre film produced by Neal Kingston and Michael Robertson of Thrills & Spills, and Jack Christian of Filmology Finance, has been a hit with audiences on streamer Hulu.
The Reef: Stalked, written and directed by Andrew Traucki, and starring Teressa Liane, Ann Truong, Saskia Archer, Kate Lister, and Tim Ross, follows a young woman who, in an effort to heal after witnessing her sister’s horrific murder, travels to a tropical resort with her friends for a kayaking and diving adventure. Only hours into their expedition, the women are stalked and then attacked by a great white shark.
A blink and you missed it July 2022 cinema release in Australia, coincided with a whopping $1.2 million result in Russia/CIS, with a $414,997 opening weekend.
The gap between the local and international market seems to grow year on year, with the likes of The Dry, which grossed $14 million in Australian cinemas, managed to only capture $364,237 in the US market. Similarly, The Drover’s Wife, which wasn’t a major hit in Australia, managed less than 1% of its box office from international showings.
The Reef: Stalked debuted as the #1 Horror Film and the #2 Top Film on Hulu globally, illustrating the appetite for genre fare on streaming platforms.
It’s the third film produced by the Thrills & Spills and Filmology Finance collaboration, following Black Water: Abyss and Great White.
“We are thrilled to have partnered with Filmology Finance on a slate of successful projects, including The Reef: Stalked. It’s gratifying to see such powerful audience and market validation for our genre films,” said Neal Kingston of Thrills & Spills.
Jack Christian, the CEO and producer at Filmology Finance, added, “It’s fantastic to see The Reef: Stalked achieve such tremendous success theatrically and now on streaming platforms. The film has been a box office hit in a number of key territories, and its success on Hulu and other streaming platforms is now the icing on the cake.”
The film’s producers are currently in discussions with market partners on a slate of projects that share the same production and finance model. The Reef: Stalked continues to sell internationally through Alliance Media Partners.
