Horror Prequel Overcomes 40% RT Score To Become Streaming Hit

Apartment 7A has overcome its 40% Rotten Tomatoes score to become a major hit on streaming. Directed by Natalie Erika James, Apartment 7A serves as a prequel to Rosemary’s Baby (1968), with Julia Garner starring as Terry Gionoffrio, a dancer with grand ambitions who rents a room from a peculiar older couple played by Dianne Wiest and Kevin McNally. The film, which was released directly onto Paramount+ on September 27, earned mostly negative reviews.

New data from Reelgood now reveals that Apartment 7A ranks as the fifth most popular movie on streaming in the U.S. for the week of September 26 – October 2. The horror prequel also ranks as the tenth most popular streaming title overall. Looking just at movies, Apartment 7A beats titles like Challengers (2024), The Fall Guy (2024), and His Three Daughters (2024), but falls short of other films like Killer Heat (2024), Inside Out 2 (2024), and Civil War (2024), and, in the number one spot, Wolfs (2024). Check out Reelgood’s top 10 movies chart below:

What Apartment 7A’s Streaming Success Means For The Film

How The Audience Response Differs From The Critics’ Consensus

The Apartment 7A reviews mostly agree that Garner delivers a strong performance as Terry, but that the film suffers due to it being a prequel. Though there are some surprising moments, the film can feel by-the-numbers due to how it sets the stage for Rosemary’s Baby. The end result is a movie that never quite carves out its own identity for itself or emerges from under its predecessor’s shadow.

While the critical consensus may be mostly negative, audiences have generally been more receptive. On Rotten Tomatoes, as of writing, Apartment 7A sports a 71% audience score. While this is still somewhat lukewarm overall, this score paired with the prequel’s streaming success paints a much more positive reception for the film. As a streaming-only release, Apartment 7A has no box office performance by which to judge it, but if the movie continues to top viewership charts, it could potentially be considered at least a moderate success.

Our Take On Apartment 7A’s Streaming Success

Has The Horror Prequel Been A Hit?

It can often be challenging to judge just how successful a streaming-only release is. Streamers don’t often release complete or specific viewership or engagement data, and nor do they release data regarding how many subscribers a particular title draws to the service, which is surely a metric that is used to gauge success. It’s also not clear exactly what the film’s budget is, but that will also determine what kind of viewership it needs to be considered a success.

Apartment 7A having to set up Rosemary’s Baby means that it may not break the mold or offer up anything particularly unexpected, but it does feature a strong performance from Garner, who is now well known to many audiences due to her role as Ruth Langmore in Ozark. It’s Garner and the Rosemary’s Baby IP that serve as the main draw for Apartment 7A, and these factors are clearly proving interesting to Paramount+ subscribers.

Source: Reelgood

In this psychological thriller, a young woman is forced into a mysterious cult after moving into a seemingly ordinary apartment complex. As strange events occur there, she begins to question her sanity and the motives of her enigmatic neighbors.

Director

Natalie Erika James

Release Date

September 20, 2024

Studio(s)

Paramount Players
, Sunday Night
, Platinum Dunes

Distributor(s)

Paramount+

Writers

Natalie Erika James
, Christian White
, Ira Levin
, Skylar James

Cast

Julia Garner
, Dianne Wiest
, Kevin McNally
, Jim Sturgess
, Marli Siu
, Rosy McEwen
, Andrew Buchan
, Kobna Holdbrook-Smith

Character(s)

Terry
, Minnie Castevet
, Roman Castevet
, Alan Marchand
, Annie Leung
, Vera Clarke

Runtime

104 Minutes

Franchise(s)

Rosemary’s Baby

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