We have a new movie about the most famous vampire of all time, which has broken a significant box office record.
Dracula (or Dracula: A Love Tale) is a recently released French vampire horror romance from writer-director Luc Besson (Léon: The Professional), starring Caleb Landry Jones and Christoph Waltz, following Dracula as he wanders throughout the centuries searching for his lost love. With a Rotten Tomatoes score of 53%, Dracula has been fighting for attention at the box office.
Per The Numbers, as of February 13, Dracula has grossed $25.3 million worldwide. Notably, this makes it the highest-grossing movie ever for its distributor, Vertical Entertainment, responsible for its wide theatrical release in the U.S. after its world premiere in France last year. However, Dracula was reportedly produced on a budget of at least $50 million, so it is still far off from being a commercial success.
Vertical is not releasing the biggest movies in the industry, but some recent widely-covered movies the company was involved with include the zombie horror entry We Bury the Dead (also a January 2026 release) starring Daisy Ridley and the period thriller Eden (2025) starring Sydney Sweeney and Ana de Armas. The former only grossed $3.8 million, and the latter $2.4 million.
Dracula is trailing behind other movies at the domestic box office as Send Help continues to dominate this week. However, the entire box office is about to be upset but Wuthering Heights, with its strong projections, while GOAT, Crime 101, and Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die all hit theaters this weekend as well. Thus, Dracula is likely to get lost amid all the new competition, with its earnings slowing down.
Dracula could slowly continue to grow its profits, but the outlook is bleak. However, it is still an impressive accomplishment for Vertical, which has been handling smaller releases for years, to beat its own record. Recognition and interest in the Dracula character probably helped, especially following Nosferatu’s success at the end of 2024.
Though it came out over a year ago, Robert Eggers’ vampire horror movie (a remake of a movie which itself was an unauthorized adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula) is still on everyone’s minds. ScreenRant’s Brandon Zachary compared Nosferatu and Dracula: A Love Tale, as many may be inclined to do, calling the latter not “necessarily a good movie, but […] just bizarre and funny enough to be a great watch.”
Dracula has the makings of a major streaming hit, which Vertical could make happen, as Eden ended up on Netflix, where it was very popular. However, if people decide they want to experience this particular Dracula movie in theaters, they still have a chance.