“Halloween” Scares Up A Frighteningly Big Opening

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BOX OFFICE REPORT

October 19-21, 2018

(estimates from BoxOfficeMojo.com)

TOP 5

Halloween $77.5 million
A Star Is Born  $19.3 million
Venom  $18.1 million
Goosebumps 2:
Haunted Halloween 		 $9.7 million
First Man $8.5 million

There was no escaping Michael Myers this time. The direct sequel to 1978's Halloween sliced up the competition definitively. With $77.5 million, it has the second biggest opening for both an October movie and a horror film, behind Venom and last year's It, respectively. In just one weekend, it made more money than any previous Halloween installment and is on its way to being one of the biggest horror movies ever, and one of the biggest from the studio most committed to horror: Blumhouse.

A Star Is Born held onto its No. 2 slot for the third straight weekend. At the rate its holding, and given how it should experience a second wave of popularity once it gets showered with award nominations in December and January, it could easily be one of the biggest movies to never hit No. 1. Venom slid to No. 3, on pace to potentially pass both The Amazing Spider-Man 2 and even possibly Solo: A Star Wars Story. It's just a few bucks shy of being one of the 10 biggest movies of the year.

Goosebumps 2 stayed in fourth with a solid hold. It will still finish well below its predecessor but should continue to make solid money until the onslaught of family-friendly entertainment starts in November. First Man sadly dropped to fifth place. It's the best movie of the year so far in my opinion, but audiences just aren't turning out for a truly breathtaking experience.

Outside the top 5:

  • This Weekend's Indie Champ: Mid90s, the nostalgic directorial debut of actor Jonah Hill. The ode to L.A. skate culture earned divisive reviews but delivered a truly impressive $62,375 average on its four screens.
  • The Hate U Give expanded nicely. The gripping coming-of-age story about a police shooting added more than 2,000 screens. It moved up to sixth place, and earned a quite good $7.5 million. It received an A+ from CinemaScore, which speaks well to its word-of-mouth.
  • The Sisters Brothers did the opposite in its expansion. Adding more than 1,000 screens, the dark Western comedy starring John C. Reilly and Joaquin Phoenix couldn't even crack $1 million this weekend.

Next week:

Halloween will definitely repeat, but only with $30 million or less. Its only competition is the submarine thriller Hunter Killer with Gerard Butler. Even though it's been a while since we've had a good submarine thriller, this one won't make more than $10 million.

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About Kip Mooney

Kip Mooney
Like many film critics born during and after the 1980s, my hero is Roger Ebert. The man was already the best critic in the nation when he won the Pulitzer in 1975, but his indomitable spirit during and after his recent battle with cancer keeps me coming back to read not only his reviews but his insightful commentary on the everyday. But enough about a guy you know a lot about. I knew I was going to be a film critic—some would say a snob—in middle school, when I had to voraciously defend my position that The Royal Tenenbaums was only a million times better than Adam Sandler’s remake of Mr. Deeds. From then on, I would seek out Wes Anderson’s films and avoid Sandler’s like the plague. Still, I like to think of myself as a populist, and I’ll be just as likely to see the next superhero movie as the next Sundance sensation. The thing I most deplore in a movie is laziness. I’d much rather see movies with big ambitions try and fail than movies with no ambitions succeed at simply existing. I’m also a big advocate of fun-bad movies like The Room and most of Nicolas Cage’s work. In the past, I’ve written for The Dallas Morning News and the North Texas Daily, which I edited for a semester. I also contributed to Dallas-based Pegasus News, which in the circle of life, is now part of The Dallas Morning News, where I got my big break in 2007. Eventually, I’d love to write and talk about film full-time, but until that’s a viable career option, I work as an auditor for Wells Fargo. I hope to one day meet my hero, go to the Toronto International Film Festival, and compete on Jeopardy. Until then, I’m excited to share my love of film with you.