Us is outpacing both Get Out and A Quiet Place in Fandango presales. Founded almost twenty years ago, Fandango represents one of the three major movie ticketing websites. Its Fanticipation buzz index calculates scores based on advance ticket sales, then places them on a scale that runs from 1-100. At present, Jordan Peele’s Us is one of the site’s highest-ranking upcoming films, with a 90 out of 100 score.

Peele’s popularity has consistently grown since his career as a feature film writer and director began. The rise of his first film, Get Out, from an indie horror/festival circuit favorite to an Oscar winning production, only further cemented the legitimacy of both his ability as a filmmaker and, perhaps more importantly to some, his ability as a horror filmmaker. With its intricate and creative take on the exploration of race relations, stereotypes and the human mind, Get Out would be a sizeable challenge for any filmmaker to surmount. But Peele isn’t just any filmmaker, and barely two years after taking the world by storm, he appears ready to do the same with his follow up, Us.

According to Fandango, things are already looking promising for Us. The film is currently outpacing previous ticket sales for Get Out, as well as last year’s big horror hit, A Quiet Place. And as if that weren’t encouraging enough news, Fandango also announced that Us has the best horror-thriller presales since 2018’s much anticipated Halloween. Even the site’s managing editor Erik Davis called the film “absolutely nuts and deliriously horrific”, which is arguably one of the highest complements that a horror film can get.


After premiering recently at SXSW, Us has received a consistent amount of critical acclaim, and with the film’s official release coming up on March 22, it’s understandable why Fandango would be seeing such a swell in ticket sales. The film’s trailer was also a major talking point for both fans of Peele and horror, with a storyline that follows a family vacationing at their summer beach house. When a family of angry strangers arrives, known as “The Tethered”, who are identical to the vacationing family, a campaign of murder and mayhem is unleashed. Once again, Peele’s work appears to be headed for commercial and critical success, though there are often discrepancies between what critics and the general public think.

Of course, the possibility of discrepancies occurring depends on the actual strength of the film, and whether or not its current acclaim is based on hype and excitement, or something that's legitimately deserving of praise. Horror fans could argue that the lack of mainstream critical interest in the genre over the years has perhaps left a portion of critics ill-equipped to understand what's new or terrifying about a horror film. In that sense, the praise that Us has received so far from certain critics might not mean as much to some audience members. That being said, Us was created by a huge horror fan with a proven track record, and that alone bodes well for the film.

Us (2019) release date: Mar 22, 2019