This year, Halloween came early.
Debuting to an estimated $77.5 million, Universal’s slasher reboot affirmed the enduring power of the immortal franchise in a powerful way and made yet another case for horror as arguably the most reliable genre going. Elsewhere, The Hate U Give enjoyed an impressive wide expansion while a slew of independent titles debuted to mixed results in limited release.
After nearly ten years away from the screen, the Halloween franchise proved as unstoppable as Michael Myers himself with the latest installment, thanks to a combination of strong reviews (80% at Rotten Tomatoes), a nostalgic pull for older audiences who grew up with the original movies, the much-heralded return of original star Jamie Lee Curtis, and an aggressive marketing campaign that made the film into a “must-see” event. Though few expected it to reach these heights, signs were certainly pointing to a better-than-expected debut in the days leading up to release. Not only did Fandango report that Halloween was outselling The Nun ($53.8 million opening) at the same point in the sales cycle, but our own Trailer Impact research showed that 49 percent of audiences surveyed were “Definitely interested” in seeing the film, vs. 40 percent for The Nun at the same point.
Though it wasn’t quite able to topple Venom’s $80.2 million October opening record from earlier this month, Halloween broke a number of other records on its way to No. 1 this weekend. In addition to surpassing Venom‘s record for the highest Friday opening in October ($33.34 million vs. $32.5 million), it also scored the highest opening weekend in Halloween franchise history (a feat accomplished by the end of its first full day of release), and the highest opening weekend ever in the slasher sub-genre (far surpassing the Friday the 13th reboot’s $40.5 million debut back in 2009). Additionally, it’s the second-highest opening weekend ever for an R-rated horror film after the phenomenally-successful It, which brought in an eye-popping $123.4 million last September. In just its first weekend, it also far outgrossed the lifetime cume of every other film in the Halloween franchise, though adjusting for inflation, it still has a ways to go before topping the original Halloween‘s $176 million gross in 2018 dollars.
Remaining in second place for the third weekend in a row – and outgrossing Venom for the first time on the weekend chart – was Warner Bros.’ A Star Is Born, which took in an estimated $19.3 million in its third frame. That’s a drop of just 32 percent for the acclaimed title, which now has $126.3 million in the bank after 17 days. Though it was something of a tight race for the No. 2 slot, the Lady Gaga-Bradley Cooper drama surpassed Venom in daily grosses every day last week thanks to excellent word of mouth and growing awards buzz, and it seems destined to continue demonstrating strong legs as we head deeper into the fall season.
In third place, Venom dropped took in an estimated $18.1 million, down 48 percent from last weekend. That gives the Sony release an excellent $171.1 million after 17 days. With this weekend’s gross, the Tom Hardy superhero title is now the studio’s top-grossing release of 2018, surpassing Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation‘s $167 million cume on Sunday.
More to come…
The post Studio Weekend Estimates: ‘Halloween’ Pulls in Powerful $77.5M; ‘A Star Is Born’ ($19.3M) Tops ‘Venom’ ($18.1M) for 2nd Place appeared first on BoxOffice Pro.
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