Weekend estimates: Come Play scores solid Halloween win

November 1, 2020

Come Play

Come Play is outperforming expectations and set for a comfortable weekend win, according to studio projections released on Sunday morning. Its $3.15-million debut is a little behind other recent chart toppers like Honest Thief and The War with Grandpa, both of which picked up $3.6-million openings, but it’s also comfortably ahead of our pre-weekend prediction of $2.2 million.

Is this better-than-expected performance a sign of a strengthening market? Unfortunately not.

Overall, the top six films will earn about 6% less than last weekend, thanks to steep declines for Honest Thief (down 43%), The War with Grandpa (also down 43%), and The Empty Man, which will fall an ugly 57%. The best-performing returning film is Hocus Pocus, which will be down just 14% from last weekend. Its performance is a good hint at how the tides are shifting this weekend: Halloween is a big influence. That most likely helped Come Play too, while hurting everything else.

To be fair, Halloween is generally not a huge weekend in movie theaters, so a down weekend isn’t a big surprise, but with the base being so low, any improvement in the market should show up clearly in box office receipts. As COVID-19 cases continue to rise in the US and around the world, it seems highly likely we’ll be stuck in this holding pattern for a while. In fact, the main driving force in the market over the next few months is likely to be how many theaters close their doors completely, rather than trying to get by on these meagre earnings.





A couple of other films opened this weekend and are looking to cash in on spooky season. The original Halloween is back in 781 theaters, and will make a projected $274,000 this weekend, and Paramount has modern horror flick Spell playing in 369 locations. It will pick up a projected $210,000, with a decent $569 theater average. Although Spell will make the top 10, it could have had a shot at the top 5 with a bit more of a push.

In international marketes, The Witches opened in 17 markets this weekend, after an HBO Max debut in the US on October 22. It is expected to earn $4.8 million from 5,723 screens, with Russia ($1.6 million from 2,062 screens), Mexico ($823,000 from 2,227), and Germany ($482,000 from 345) the top markets.

>Tenet is approaching $350 million globally, with another $3.3 million this weekend (including its $885,000 from North America. It stands at $293.3 million internationally and $53.8 million domestically, for a worldwide cume of $347.1 million.

- Weekend studio estimates
- Weekend predictions
- Weekend theater counts

Filed under: Weekend Estimates, Halloween, Hocus Pocus, The War with Grandpa, The Empty Man, Come Play, Honest Thief, The Witches, Tenet, Spell