Michael Keaton just might be at the peak of his long, Hollywood career. The actor has appeared in some iconic and beloved films over the years: Beetlejuice, Batman, Toy Story 3, Spider-Man: Homecoming, and many others. Most of these films have fresh critics’ scores on Rotten Tomatoes. Even their audience scores are solid. But if you scroll to the very bottom of Keaton’s filmography, you’ll find his most poorly received movie on Rotten Tomatoes: a supernatural horror film by the name of White Noise. Yet despite its negative reviews, as well as other obstacles that it faced, White Noise defied the odds and became a surprising box office success.
What Is White Noise About?
By the early 2000s, Micheal Keaton had hit a career slump. Movie offers had slowed down, his popularity had waned, and the films that he did appear in usually turned out to be critical and commercial disappointments. Despite his best efforts, Keaton struggled to recapture his success from the past two decades. Then along came White Noise.
Never heard of White Noise? Don’t worry, aside from those who saw it in theaters, not many people have. White Noise is a supernatural horror film that focuses on something called electronic voice phenomena (EVP), a strange occurrence where voice-like sounds are discovered on electronic audio recordings and are interpreted to come from the afterlife. It’s sort of like audio ghosts. Keaton was tapped for the lead role in the film, playing a character who becomes obsessed with trying to contact his dead wife through EVP — and in doing so, he attracts the attention of three sinister demons.
Critics Tried to Silence White Noise, but It Still Managed to Get a Sequel
Critics ruthlessly tore White Noise apart, calling the film “muddled and unsatisfying.” It holds a meager 7% on Rotten Tomatoes, the lowest-rated movie in Keaton’s otherwise impressive filmography. But these scathing reviews couldn’t silence White Noise at the box office. The film turned out to be a surprising success, grossing $91 million against its $10 million budget. Yet despite these numbers, it doesn’t seem like audiences actually enjoyed the film. Its audience score on Rotten Tomatoes is 31%, an improvement from the critics’ score but still pretty awful.
Per usual, studio executives couldn’t help themselves and felt like they had to capitalize on this success. They pumped out a sequel, White Noise: The Light, just two years later. You’d expect critics to tank this movie even worse than its predecessor, but once again, White Noise produced a surprising result. The sequel was met with praise from critics. It holds an impressive 75% on Rotten Tomatoes, a massive 68% increase from the original film.
White Noise’s Box Office Success Made Hollywood Reevaluate How the Box Office Works
Negative reviews weren’t the only obstacle that White Noise had to overcome. This movie hit theaters the first weekend after New Year’s Day, which is historically one of the worst weekends for a new release. Studios tend to “dump” films, for which they have little critical and commercial expectations, on this weekend, almost setting them up for failure.
But the surprising success of White Noise made Hollywood reassess their strategies, especially when it came to horror films. Studio executives realized that if a poorly received movie like White Noise could become a box office success in January, then a quality film in that genre should perform even better in the same time frame.
You may not realize it, but we’ve seen this theory get put to the test several times. J.J. Abrams’ horror classic Cloverfield was released in January 2008, which would’ve been a huge no-no prior to White Nose. The film earned $40 million on its opening weekend, a record that it held until 2014 for January new releases. Cloverfield was also a monstrous success, grossing a total of $172 million. 2012’s The Devil Inside was also released the first weekend after New Year’s Day. Like White Noise, The Devil Inside was bashed by critics — and like White Noise, it also turned out to be a box office success.
Of all the films, it was this little horror movie from 2005 that became a Hollywood case study, making production companies stop and reevaluate their strategies for new January releases.
Keaton Eventually Got His Proper Career Comeback
Despite its box office success, White Noise wasn’t the career comeback that Michael Keaton had been looking for. It wouldn’t be until nine years later, with 2014’s Birdman, that Keaton would finally strike gold. Alejandro Iñárritu’s Oscar-winning film brought Keaton back to his superhero roots, as an aging actor who’s trying to move on from playing the superhero Birdman and stage a career comeback.
In a way, Keaton was this character — and Birdman was the actor’s real-life comeback. The role earned him a Best Actor nomination at the Oscars and a Best Actor win at the Golden Globes.
Keaton has since starred in a number of critically acclaimed projects, like Spotlight, The Founder, and the Hulu TV series Dopesick. Over the last two years, he’s gotten the chance to reprise two of his most iconic characters: Batman in 2023’s The Flash and, more recently, the crude, titular character in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. After years of critical disappointments, including 2005’s White Noise, Michael Keaton has persevered to find himself once again at the top of Hollywood’s A-list. And from the looks of it, this 73-year-old cinematic treasure shows no signs of slowing down.
Michael Keaton stars in
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice,
which is now playing exclusively in theaters across the United States.
