Weekend Wrap-Up: Halloween Fastest Horror Opening of 2018, Won’t have a Quiet Run
October 23, 2018
Halloween opened on the high end of expectations earning $76.22 million during its opening weekend. This tops The Nun’s previous best opening for a horror film released this year of $53.81 million. Both The Hate U Give and The Old Man and the Gun expanded into the top ten, which also helped the overall box office a little but. Speaking of the overall box office, it rose 21% from last weekend, hitting $165 million. More impressively, this was 72% higher than the same weekend last year. Normally, a year-over-year change this dramatic only happens when there is a misalignment in holidays, but this has been happening a lot this year. Year-to-date, 2018’s lead over 2017 climbed to $960 million or 11.3% at $9.39 billion to $8.44 billion. There’s no way this lead will remain this high at the end of the year, but it would take a serious collapse for 2018 to not finish with a higher total box office than 2017.
Halloween opened with $76.22 million over the weekend, which is not only the biggest horror opening for the year, but puts it just over $1 million away from becoming the biggest worldwide hit in the franchise, just on its opening weekend domestic numbers. It also earned 80% positive reviews and a B plus from CinemaScore. On the other hand, Universal’s weekend projections dropped from $80.3 million based on Fridays estimates to $76.22 million final numbers, which suggests short legs. This likely means A Quiet Place will remain the biggest horror hit of 2018. That said, Halloween is barely a week away, so perhaps this movie will get a boost pushing it into first place.
A Star is Born remained in second place with $19.05 million over the weekend for a three-week total of $126.13 million. This matched our prediction perfectly.
Venom also matched our prediction perfectly with $18.04 million over the weekend for a three-week total of $171.06 million. It remains on pace for $200 million domestically and will easily be Sony’s biggest hit released in 2018.
Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween remained in fourth place with $9.72 million over the weekend for a two-week total of $28.81 million. This film isn’t living up to its predecessor, but it is doing well enough to break even early in its home market run.
On the other hand, First Man fell 48% to $8.33 million over the weekend for a two-week total of $29.76 million. It won’t match its $60 million production budget domestically, so it will need help internationally in order to break even during its initial push onto the home market. It will likely still need to pick up some major Awards Season nominations for this to happen.
The Hate U Give rose to sixth place with $7.60 million over the weekend for a total of $10.74 million, including its limited release run. Its reviews are 96% positive and it earned a rare A plus from CinemaScore, so its legs could be really long. On the other hand, its theater average is just over $3,300, so it won’t be able to expand significantly. In fact, if it stumbles next weekend, it could lose theaters at a rapid pace. A strong hold next weekend, plus some more Awards Season buzz, could keep it in theaters for another month.
The Old Man and the Gun also expanded into the top ten, earning tenth place with $2.13 million in 802 theaters over the weekend for a total of $4.29 million after four weeks of limited release. It has very likely peaked at the box office, but 90% positive reviews and potential Awards Season success could keep it in theaters for a while.
Bad Times at the El Royale was the only sophomore film not in the top five. It fell from seventh to ninth with $3.42 million over the weekend for a two-week total of $13.46 million. Its theater average is just $1,218 and only the lack of top-tier competition starting on Friday will prevent it from seeing its theater count slashed this coming weekend.
- Halloween Comparisons
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- The Hate U Give Comparisons
Filed under: Weekend Wrap-up, Venom, Halloween, The Old Man and the Gun, A Star is Born, Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween, The Nun, First Man, Bad Times at the El Royale, The Hate U Give, Halloween