‘Halloween’ was a major success this weekend. The horror sequel scored points with die-hards by involving original director John Carpenter, original star Jamie Lee Curtis— who also served as executive producer– original “Shape” Nick Castle, and producer Malek Akkad, the son of the late Moustapha Akkad, who produced the ‘Halloween’ movies from 1978-2002. This slasher sequel marks the second-best October opening weekend ever, earning $77.5M, trailing ‘Venom’ which just opened three weeks ago, with $80.5M. Combined, this looks to be the most profitable October at the box office on record, which is significant because October has traditionally not posted number like these.
This is also the second-best horror opening ever, following ‘It: Chapter One’‘s $123.4M, but perhaps even more impressively, ‘Halloween’ isn’t playing on higher-priced IMAX screens, like ‘It’ and ‘Venom’ did, so this weekend’s haul was composed entirely of regular ticket sales.
Did the film actually deliver? Audiences gave it a strong B+ CinemaScore, which equals the score given to ‘Halloween: Resurrection’ which was the last time Curtis appeared in the franchise before it was rebooted by Rob Zombie for two stand-alone installments. Critics dig it too, as it has an 80% ranking on Rotten Tomatoes. And it’s getting strong buzz on social media, according to RelishMix:
“Fans are discussing the original, how its plot lines up with this 2018 film — and the many chapters of the series between 1978 and how, 40 years later. Lots of horror fans, whether or not they’re ‘all in’ for Halloween, are impressed by the clips and presentation of Michael Myers they’ve seen so far. And, similar to superhero convo, even ‘Halloween’ fans who aren’t convinced by this latest offering are still saying they have to go to theaters to see it. There are even those suggesting that there should be a rebooted face-off between Myers and other horror favorites, like Jason of the ‘Friday the 13th’ series.”
It’s garnered 192.1M views across Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. It seems that the film is drawing old-school fans of the original, and they are bringing their kids. It’s become a cross-generational experience, similar to ‘Star Wars’!
In terms of the holdovers, ‘A Star Is Born’ narrowly outperformed ‘Venom’ this week, earning $18.9M over ‘Venom”s $18.6M. Unfortunately, ‘First Man’ is not delivering the way that Universal/Dreamworks hoped. It’s still in the Top Five, taking in an additional $8.6M.
TOP FIVE:
- Halloween (Universal/Miramax/Blumhouse) – $77.5M
- A Star Is Born (Warner Brothers) – $18.9M
- Venom (Sony) – $18.6M
- Goosebumps 2 (Sony) – $10.1M
- First Man (Universal/Dreamworks) – $8.6M
Nothing much is opening next weekend. There is the Amazon horror film ‘Suspiria’, which is getting a limited release in theaters before going to Prime. There’s also ‘Johnny English Strikes Back’, which… my mom should love. (She loves her some Mr. Bean.) But beyond the middle-aged Asian lady demographic, I’m not sure this film will have much appeal here in the States.
Source: Deadline
