Abigail (Alisha Weir) in a scene from "Abigail."
Abigail — a gory vampire film inspired by the 1936 Universal Pictures monster movie Dracula’s Daughter — is now playing in theaters nationwide. When, though, will the movie be coming to streaming?
Abigail opened in more than 3,300 theaters domestically on April 19. According to Deadline, Abigail was neck-and-neck with last week’s No. 1 film Civil War on Friday in a battle for this weekend’s box office crown. Based on opening day estimates for both films, Deadline predicts Abigail and Civil War will each finish the weekend with about $11 million in domestic ticket sales.
Variety predicts a different outcome for both films, estimating Abigail will finish the weekend in the $12 million to $15 million range at the domestic box office. Civil War, the trade publication added will pull in anywhere from $10 million to $12 million for a No. 2 finish at the box office in its second weekend of release.
Either way, results of the dead heat between Abigail and Civil War won’t be official until Sunday or possibly Monday.
No matter the case, some audiences will want to wait until the horror movie comes to streaming so they can cover their eyes and/or laugh under a blanket at home. That’s because Abigail is loaded with jump scares yet has the same sort of gleefully over-the-top blood and gore akin to Sam Raimi’s original Evil Dead movies or its TV spinoff Ash Vs. Evil Dead.
Since Abigail is a Universal Pictures release, it will make its streaming video demand release on NBC Universal’s streaming platform Peacock TV. Per an agreement between Universal and Peacock in December 2021 (via Variety), most Universal films will debut on the streamer as soon as 45 days after the release.
With that, viewers can expect to stream Abigail for “free” — provided they subscribe to Peacock’s platform — on or around June 4.
If viewers don’t want to see the film in theaters but don’t want to wait to stream the film on Peacock, it’s expected to follow the release pattern of most other theatrical releases and be available first for digital rental or purchase on various digital platforms.
Digital rentals are generally $19.99 for a 48-hour period once viewers start watching their movie and $24.99 for purchase. As such, Abigail is already up for pre-order on Prime Video, AppleTV+ and VUDU. No date has been set yet, however, for the PVOD release of Abigail.
Abigail (Alisha Weir) and Sammy (Kathryn Newton) in a scene from "Abigail."
What Is Abigail About?
Abigail is the creation of the filmmaking team Radio Silence, which consists of producer Chad Villella and co-directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett.
Before Abigail, the Radio Silence team produced the comedy-tinged horror films Ready or Not, Scream and Scream VI, so given the combination of frights, gore and laughs in Abigail, the film is completely in their wheelhouse.
Abigail reunites Scream star Melissa Barrera with her Radio Silence collaborators. Barerra plays Joey, a single mother struggling with addiction who teams up with five other would-be criminals to kidnap Abigail (Alisha Weir), the 12-year-old Ballerina daughter of an infamous underworld kingpin.
Per their arrangement with the crime’s organizer, Lambert (Giancarlo Esposito), the crew is tasked with holding Abigail captive in a remote, broken-down mansion for 24 hours until they can collect $50 million in ransom money.
However — as the crew unfortunately discovers — Abigail is a vampire who is more than 1,000 years old, which has given her enough time to learn how to dispatch each of them in quick and particularly cruel ways.
In addition to Barerra, the film also features Dan Stevens, Kathryn Newton, William Catlett, Kevin Durand and the late Euphoria star Angus Cloud.
Abigail received a warm welcome from critics on the review aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes, earning an 81% “fresh” rating on the Tomatometer based on 120 reviews. Audiences like Abigail even more, as the Rotten Tomatoes audience score comes in at 92% positive based on 100+ verified ratings.
