With this weekend’s box office total ($160 million) unofficially the second biggest ever in October, the monthly box office is on pace to top October, 2014 for the highest-grossing tenth month in the domestic market Hollywood history. This strong October certainly is helping 2018’s totals, which are running at a record annual pace.
Green’s Halloween is a straight-ahead, 40-years-after sequel to the original Halloween with Jamie Lee Curtis and Nick Castle reprising their roles from the 1978 original. This latest version of original slasher film, which takes place as if none of the previous Halloween films except the 1978 original ever happened, is the third to be named “Halloween,” and also the third “first sequel” after 1981’s Halloween 2 and Rob Zombie’s 2009 Halloween 2. In just three days Green’s Halloween has earned more in the domestic market than all the rest of the franchise’s films managed in their entire runs (save for Rob Zombie’s Halloween that managed a lifetime gross of $80 million).
The new Halloween also posted the second best opening for an R-rated horror movie ever, though it was well behind the $123 million debut of It in September of 2017, and the second best October bow ever, trailing Venom’s $80.2 million 3-day total by just a bit. Halloween’s prospects (at least through the end of the month) appear to be excellent, since the film received a solid (for the horror movie genre) “B+” CinemaScore from opening weekend audiences, which skewed male (53%) and included a healthy percentage of younger viewers (for an R-rated film) with 41% of the crowd under 25.
Produced for just $10 million, Green’s Halloween is already a big success financially, it just remains to be seen how big a win this is for Universal and Blumhouse Productions.
As predicted A Star Is Born finally overtook Venom this weekend as it dropped just 32.2%, earning $19.3 million and bringing its domestic total to $126.4 million. The musical remake now trails Venom by $45 million—and given the longevity displayed by Oscar-hopeful songfests, A Star Is Born may eventually catch up with Eddie Brock & Company in the domestic market (though never internationally).
Ruben Fleischer’s Venom remains resilient, even in the face of direct competition from Halloween. The symbiote saga slipped just 48.3% in its third frame as it added $18.1 million to bring its domestic total to $171.1 million. Internationally Venom topped the global markets for the third weekend in a row. Fleischer’s film has now earned over $290 million outside the U.S. for a worldwide haul of over $461 million, which means that the $100 million production has made it into the black, assuring future Spidey-Verse spin-off films.
Elsewhere in the top ten, Damien Chazelle’s Neil Armstrong biopic First Man continued to struggle, dropping 46.5% from its disappointing opening. The $59 million production earned just $8.5 million to bring its domestic to nearly $30 million after ten days of release. While there is still time for First Man to leave its mark on the box office, this adult-skewing drama has not performed up to expectations.
Fox expanded its socially-conscious YA adaptation The Hate U Give from 48 theaters to 2,303, and the critically-acclaimed drama earned $7.5 million to bring its total to $10.6 million. This is a film to watch, as it will likely gain some Oscar nominations, and has a certain amount of breakout potential. It earned an “A+” CinemaScore from audiences, which skewed female (64%) and a bit older than might be expected for a YA adaptation (51% over 25). African-Americans made up just over half of the audience.
Warner Bros. Animation’s animated Smallfoot, which has virtually no cartoon competition, dropped just 27% as it added $6.6 million, driving its domestic total to $66.4 million, just a bit less than the $66.9 million amassed by the Tiffany Haddish/Kevin Hart comedy Night School, which added $5 million (a 35.5% drop).
Be sure to check back here next week to see if Halloween can continue its reign as box office champ with competition from the submarine thriller Hunter Killer, which will debut in about 2,600 theaters.