{ "id": "ep36wr2e58", "slug": "imaginary", "title": "Imaginary", "updated": "2026-11-01", "topic_path": [ { "id": "culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture" }, { "id": "culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.horror", "label": 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"geo.us.t2021.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.horror.supernatural-horror-films", "label": "Supernatural horror films", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t2021.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.horror.supernatural-horror-films" } ] } ], "excerpt": "Imaginary is a 2024 American supernatural horror film directed by Jeff Wadlow, starring DeWanda Wise, about an abandoned imaginary friend returning through a teddy bear.", "snippet": "Imaginary is a 2024 American supernatural horror film directed by Jeff Wadlow, starring DeWanda Wise, about an abandoned imaginary friend returning through a teddy bear.", "node": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.horror.supernatural-horror-films.2020s-supernatural-horror-films.alpha-symbols-to-l", "markdown": "# Imaginary\n\n**Imaginary** is a 2024 American supernatural horror film directed by Jeff Wadlow, in which a woman returning to her childhood home discovers that the imaginary friend she abandoned there is real and has attached itself to her young stepdaughter through a stuffed teddy bear named Chauncey.[1](https://www.lionsgate.com/movies/imaginary) • [2](https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/imaginary) It was produced by [Jason Blum](https://www.edgepedia.org/jason-blum)'s Blumhouse Productions with Tower of Babble Entertainment and distributed by Lionsgate, opening in United States theaters on March 8, 2024.[1](https://www.lionsgate.com/movies/imaginary) • [3](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/imaginary)\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Director and writers | Jeff Wadlow; screenplay by Wadlow, Greg Erb, and Jason Oremland[1](https://www.lionsgate.com/movies/imaginary) |\n| Production | Blumhouse Productions and Tower of Babble Entertainment; distributed by Lionsgate[3](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/imaginary) |\n| Cast | DeWanda Wise (Jessica), [Tom Payne](https://www.edgepedia.org/tom-payne-actor) (Max), Taegen Burns (Taylor), Pyper Braun (Alice), Veronica Falcón (Dr. Alana Soto), Betty Buckley (Gloria)[1](https://www.lionsgate.com/movies/imaginary) • [2](https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/imaginary) |\n| Release | Theatrical March 8, 2024 (wide, 3,118 theaters in North America); digital March 26, 2024[4](https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt26658104/) • [5](https://www.moviefone.com/movie/imaginary/wAfoGmYDmzctfJ24ZiJXS/where-to-watch/) |\n| Runtime and rating | 104 minutes; PG-13 for some violent content, drug material, and language[6](https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Imaginary-%282024%29) |\n| Box office | $28,009,161 domestic, $15,769,599 international, $43,778,760 worldwide, against a reported $13 million production budget[4](https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt26658104/) • [6](https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Imaginary-%282024%29) |\n| Critical reception | 25% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer from 105 reviews; 52% Popcornmeter from 500+ verified audience ratings[3](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/imaginary) |\n\n## Spoilers\n\n### Premise and plot\n\nJessica ([DeWanda Wise](https://www.edgepedia.org/dewanda-wise)) moves back into her childhood home with her husband Max and his two daughters, Taylor and Alice. Her youngest stepdaughter, Alice ([Pyper Braun](https://www.edgepedia.org/pyper-braun)), finds a stuffed bear named Chauncey in the basement and develops an eerie attachment to it. The games Alice plays with Chauncey begin playfully and grow increasingly sinister, and as Alice's behavior becomes more concerning, Jessica intervenes and realizes that Chauncey is much more than a stuffed toy.[1](https://www.lionsgate.com/movies/imaginary)\n\nThe film's tagline on its poster made the threat explicit: \"He's not imaginary. And he's not your friend.\"[7](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/imaginary-sufficiently-creepy-domestic-ghost-story) Chauncey, visible only to Alice and Jessica, was once Jessica's own imaginary friend from childhood; she abandoned him when she moved away, and he now draws Alice into a harmful scavenger hunt meant to carry her to the \"Never Ever,\" the place of his origin.[8](https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/a-conversation-with-jeff-wadlow-greg-erb-jason-oremland-about-blumhouses-imaginary/) • [9](https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2024/4/4/imaginary-film-horror-coraline-jeff-wadlow-dolls-creepy-scary/) • [15](https://www.dexerto.com/tv-movies/imaginary-ending-explained-blumhouse-horror-movie-2576304/) When Alice is spirited away, Jessica, the older sister Taylor, and a well-informed neighbor named Gloria ([Betty Buckley](https://www.edgepedia.org/betty-buckley)) mount a rescue mission into that world, which the [British Film Institute](https://www.edgepedia.org/british-film-institute)'s *Sight and Sound* review described as less Narnia or [Neverland](https://www.edgepedia.org/neverland) than David Lynch or M.C. Escher.[7](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/imaginary-sufficiently-creepy-domestic-ghost-story)\n\nThe writers framed the story around Jessica's own history. Co-writer Greg Erb explained that the film is about an imaginary friend arriving in a child's life when the child needs a friend, who \"just ends up being the wrong friend\"; Jessica's backstory, in which her mother was dying and her father lost his mind, was written to explain why she had needed that emotional support as a girl and to parallel what Alice is going through.[8](https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/a-conversation-with-jeff-wadlow-greg-erb-jason-oremland-about-blumhouses-imaginary/)\n\n## Development and writing\n\n**A four-year development.** According to an interview with the three writers, *Imaginary* was in development for around four years, and its basic structure remained intact throughout. The team worked collaboratively in an office at Blumhouse, arranging note cards into acts labeled 1A, 2A, 2B, and 3 over about two weeks of outlining, in a dynamic closer to a television writers' room than to solitary writers taking successive passes. Wadlow acted as the \"showrunner\" because he also directed; when he moved into pre-production, Erb and Oremland took the lead on the script.[8](https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/a-conversation-with-jeff-wadlow-greg-erb-jason-oremland-about-blumhouses-imaginary/)\n\nKey late additions included the blended family and the friction between Taylor and Jessica, which the writers saw as essential so that the two could eventually unite to save Alice. The Never Ever underwent the most changes during development; the writers defined its rules and its dual character, at once the \"magical happy place\" described by Gloria and a disorienting space where, in Erb's words, \"you don't know the rules and anything can happen.\" The horror style shifts accordingly, from grounded creepiness in the real world to a moving hallway of doors and levels. Rewriting continued into production as the writers responded to the actors' own interpretations of their characters.[8](https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/a-conversation-with-jeff-wadlow-greg-erb-jason-oremland-about-blumhouses-imaginary/)\n\n## Release and box office\n\nLionsgate released *Imaginary* wide in North America on March 8, 2024, on 3,118 screens, after earliest international dates on March 6 in France and Belgium.[4](https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt26658104/) • [6](https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Imaginary-%282024%29) The film opened to $9,912,713 domestically, about 35 percent of its final domestic total, and finished with $28,009,161 in North America (64 percent of its gross) and $43,778,760 worldwide.[4](https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt26658104/) • [6](https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Imaginary-%282024%29) The Numbers reports a production budget of $13 million, making the worldwide gross about 3.4 times the budget; [Bloody Disgusting](https://www.edgepedia.org/bloody-disgusting)'s database lists the budget as $10 million.[6](https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Imaginary-%282024%29) • [10](https://bloody-disgusting.com/db/film/imaginary-2024) A digital release followed on March 26, 2024, under three weeks after the theatrical opening.[5](https://www.moviefone.com/movie/imaginary/wAfoGmYDmzctfJ24ZiJXS/where-to-watch/)\n\n## Reception\n\nThe film received broadly negative reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes it holds a 25% Tomatometer from 105 reviews, with the site's critics consensus stating that the core concept is solid enough to produce a handful of scares but that too much of its potential is lost in a clichéd story bogged down in world-building; the audience Popcornmeter stood at 52%.[3](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/imaginary) Reviewers split over the same qualities: *Empire* gave it 2 of 5 stars and called it perilously close to a catastrophe, while Mashable described it as a \"playfully deranged movie\" suited to slumber parties.[3](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/imaginary)\n\n*The Harvard Crimson* criticized the film's execution as derivative of *Coraline*, citing shared elements including a doll-like entity, a hidden door into another world, spider imagery, and unsettling eyes on the otherworld's inhabitants, and faulted its reliance on exposition, particularly through the character of Gloria, while praising Pyper Braun's performance as Alice.[9](https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2024/4/4/imaginary-film-horror-coraline-jeff-wadlow-dolls-creepy-scary/) *Sight and Sound* took a more favorable view, calling the film an expert essay in the domestic ghost story and describing Chauncey as an interesting monster kept from being overexposed.[7](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/imaginary-sufficiently-creepy-domestic-ghost-story)\n\n## Context among 2024 imaginary-friend films\n\n*Imaginary* was one of three 2024 releases built on imaginary friends, in three different registers. *Sight and Sound* placed it in the recent wave of domestic ghost stories alongside *The Boogeyman* (2023), *Night Swim* (2024), and *Talk to Me* (2022), and noted that horror had mined the imaginary-friend concept at least as early as \"Captain Howdy\" in *The Exorcist* (1973).[7](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/imaginary-sufficiently-creepy-domestic-ghost-story) Two months later, Paramount released *IF*, [John Krasinski](https://www.edgepedia.org/john-krasinski)'s family film about a girl who can see everyone's abandoned imaginary friends, starring Cailey Fleming and [Ryan Reynolds](https://www.edgepedia.org/ryan-reynolds); it opened on May 17, 2024 with a $35 million North American debut and a further estimated $20 million from 56 international markets.[11](https://www.paramountpictures.com/movies/if-0) • [12](https://apnews.com/article/10c81c8666bc7d553c682acb8fcca77b) Separately, Studio Ponoc's animated feature *The Imaginary*, directed by Yoshiyuki Momose and based on A.F. Harrold's 2014 children's novel about a girl named Amanda and her invisible companion Rudger, opened in Japan on December 15, 2023 and reached Netflix in the United States on July 5, 2024.[13](https://media.netflix.com/en/only-on-netflix/81565710) • [14](https://ponoc.jp/cms/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/2023-11-03-Studio-Ponoc-Press-Release-for-The-Imaginary-Film-Announcement-...r-2023.pdf)\n\n## References\n\n1. [Imaginary | Official Movie Website, Lionsgate](https://www.lionsgate.com/movies/imaginary)\n2. [Imaginary streaming: where to watch movie online?, JustWatch](https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/imaginary)\n3. [Imaginary, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/imaginary)\n4. [Imaginary (2024), Box Office Mojo](https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt26658104/)\n5. [Imaginary Where to Watch, Moviefone](https://www.moviefone.com/movie/imaginary/wAfoGmYDmzctfJ24ZiJXS/where-to-watch/)\n6. [Imaginary (2024) Box Office and Financial Information, The Numbers](https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Imaginary-%282024%29)\n7. [Imaginary: a sufficiently creepy domestic ghost story, Sight and Sound (BFI), 12 March 2024](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/imaginary-sufficiently-creepy-domestic-ghost-story)\n8. [A Conversation With Jeff Wadlow, Greg Erb & Jason Oremland About Blumhouse's \"Imaginary\", Creative Screenwriting, March 27, 2024](https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/a-conversation-with-jeff-wadlow-greg-erb-jason-oremland-about-blumhouses-imaginary/)\n9. ['Imaginary' Review: A Film That Lacks Imagination, The Harvard Crimson, April 4, 2024](https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2024/4/4/imaginary-film-horror-coraline-jeff-wadlow-dolls-creepy-scary/)\n10. [Imaginary (2024) Cast, Reviews & Where to Watch, Bloody Disgusting Horror DB](https://bloody-disgusting.com/db/film/imaginary-2024)\n11. [IF, Paramount Pictures](https://www.paramountpictures.com/movies/if-0)\n12. [John Krasinski's 'IF' hits a box office nerve with $35 million debut, AP News, May 19, 2024](https://apnews.com/article/10c81c8666bc7d553c682acb8fcca77b)\n13. [The Imaginary, Netflix Media Center](https://media.netflix.com/en/only-on-netflix/81565710)\n14. [The New Film from Studio Ponoc, press release, November 3, 2023](https://ponoc.jp/cms/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/2023-11-03-Studio-Ponoc-Press-Release-for-The-Imaginary-Film-Announcement-...r-2023.pdf)\n15. [Imaginary ending explained: What happens in new Blumhouse horror movie? - Dexerto](https://www.dexerto.com/tv-movies/imaginary-ending-explained-blumhouse-horror-movie-2576304/)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Horror films (individual works) › Supernatural horror films › 2020s supernatural horror films › Titles symbols to L*\n\n*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/imaginary", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/imaginary.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"Imaginary\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/imaginary. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[Imaginary](https://www.edgepedia.org/imaginary)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/imaginary](https://www.edgepedia.org/imaginary). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"Imaginary\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/imaginary. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "Imaginary is a 2024 American supernatural horror film directed by Jeff Wadlow, starring DeWanda Wise, about an abandoned imaginary friend returning through a teddy bear." }