“Halloween” Intimidates Its Competition

By Kip Mooney • On • In Weekend Box Office Report Weekend Box Office Report Comments Off on “Halloween” Intimidates Its Competition

BOX OFFICE REPORT

October 26-28, 2018

(estimates from BoxOfficeMojo.com)

TOP 5

Halloween  $32.0 million
A Star Is Born $14.1 million
Venom $10.8 million
Goosebumps 2:
Haunted Halloween 		 $7.5 million
Hunter Killer $6.6 million

Michael Myers was unstoppable once again on the last weekend before Halloween. The sequel fell 58 percent – typical for horror movies – taking in another $32 million. In just 10 days it's become the biggest horror movie of the year, earning $10 million more than The Nun did during its entire run. By next week, it should surpass both The Conjuring and The Blair Witch Project to become the fourth-biggest R-rated horror movie of all time.

A Star Is Born made it four consecutive weeks at No. 2, which is a modern record, if not an all-time record. (That's one stat sites like Box Office Mojo don't keep track of.) It will surpass La La Land in just a few days, making it one of the biggest musicals ever. Given the lack of movies for adults throughout the next two months, expect it to keep sticking around.

Venom dropped to No. 3. It hasn't quite crossed $200 million domestically yet, but it became the 13th movie of the year to make more than half a billion dollars worldwide. (You know what movie didn't do that? Solo.) Goosebumps 2 held well – not surprising, given the season – and has now earned back its budget. Hunter Killer couldn't surface more than $6.6 million, so don't expect the submarine thriller to enjoy a renaissance.

Outside the top 5:

  • This Weekend's Indie Champ: Suspiria, Luca Guadagnino's ultra-violent horror remake. The film scared up the biggest per-theater average of the year, with a massive $89,903 on its pair of screens.
  • Mid90s earned a solid expansion. Jonah Hill's coming-of-age story has earned polarizing reviews, but jumped up more than 1,000 percent, earning $3 million.
  • Audiences just weren't interested in the return of bumbling spy Johnny English or the Christian marriage drama Indivisible. Finishing 12th and 13th, respectively, they'll fade from memory after two weeks.

Next week:

It's obvious what will be No. 1, but exactly by how much will be tricky. The Nutcracker is a perennial holiday favorite, at least among local ballets. But on the big screen? Its track record is pretty dire. The most any movie based on this story has made is... $2 million. The last version cost nearly $100 million and didn't even crack $200,000. Obviously, this big-budget Disney adaptation (The Nutcracker and the Four Realms) will make much more than that. But how much exactly? It won't be as big as its live-action remakes, and probably not as big as Alice in Wonderland. But I would be shocked if it outright flops. So I'm going to hedge my bets and say it will be No. 1, but only with about $50 million. Nobody's Fool should be No. 2 with around $30 million, and Bohemian Rhapsody in third with $25 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.