The Lighthouse currently beats The Witch 64–36
Maritime chaos edges Puritan restraint — the wilder Eggers leads.
The Verdict Director's Cut
Dafoe delivering a curse so elaborately theatrical it circles from ridiculous to terrifying and back again is what The Lighthouse has that The Witch doesn't: permission to be funny. Eggers' debut maintains its register perfectly, and the consistency is the achievement. But The Lighthouse proves he can be funny, grotesque, sexual, and horrifying within the same scene, and that range is the rarer skill. The Witch demonstrates mastery of one mode. The Lighthouse demonstrates mastery of several. When the follow-up leads, it's because range is inherently more surprising than consistency, and surprise converts into the kind of advocacy that widens margins. Audiences forgive mess when the mess comes from a director who clearly surprised himself.
The Numbers
| The Witch | The Lighthouse | |
|---|---|---|
| Head-to-Head | 36% | 64% |
| Overall Win Rate | 55% | 51% |
| Championships | 23 | 45 |
| Avg Decision | 2.6s | 3.4s |
| Budget | $4M | $11M |
| Box Office | $40M | $18M |
Where This Matchup Sits
In the 2010s on BingeBracket: The Witch at #9 and The Lighthouse is in the upper half, out of 35 films.
Looking at Robert Eggers's 3 films on BingeBracket, The Witch ranks #1 and The Lighthouse ranks #2.
When facing other films, both run into the same wall: Hereditary beats them both on BingeBracket, regardless of how they perform against each other.
The championship record tells the same story: The Lighthouse has 45 tournament wins to The Witch's 23. The pedigree gap matches the head-to-head gap.
The Witch grossed $40M to The Lighthouse's $18M. Despite the box office gap, The Lighthouse wins the head-to-head on BingeBracket.
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Where to Watch
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