While Halloween is technically only supposed to be this coming Wednesday, this weekend past saw many a celebration of all things spooky and macabre happening all over the world. As such, it should come as no surprise that Halloween – that’s the new movie that is also a direct sequel of the 1978 classic of the same name (please keep up) – once again ruled the US box office. In its second weekend on the charts the slasher sequel earned $32 million pushing its domestic total past the $100 million milestone in just 10 days. With another $25.6 million from international markets, the film is sitting now a worldwide tally of $172 million. And with this film boasting a production budget of just $10 million, this is yet another runaway box office success for horror-centric production studio Blumhouse Productions.
The next three slots were repeats of last week as A Star is Born, Venom, and Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween took 2nd, 3rd, and 4th place respectively. With a $14.1 million take, A Star is Born has now spent 4 weeks straight in the runner-up position, adding its name to the list of super successful movies that have never topped the US charts. Meanwhile, Venom’s $10.8 million earnings have now helped push its global tally to over $500 million. And even though it’s been nowhere near as successful as its predecessors, Goosebumps 2 was still the strongest holdover as it dropped just 23% to earn $9.7 million in its second frame.
Down in the halfway mark on the charts is where we find the first newcomer in the Gerard Butler-led Hunter Killer. The submarine action thriller – directed by South Africa’s own Donavan Marsh of Spud fame – unfortunately sunk as it could only manage a $6.65 million debut. However, while critics have not been kind, those few people that actually bothered to watch the movie gave it an “A-” Cinemascore which means that it could find its sea legs when it opens wider internationally in the coming weeks. It’s going to need to it break even with its $40 million production budget.
Rounding out the top 10 this weekend past we have Jonah Hill’s directorial debut Mid-90s which actually opened in very limited fashion last week already, but expanded by over 1200 screens this weekend past earning a flat $3 million. That wasn’t the end of the newcomers though as Johnny English Strikes Again and Indivisible both had limited openings, keeping them outside of the top 10. The Rowan Atkinson-led Johnny English threequel actually performed relatively well with $1.6 million from 544 cinemas giving it a per-theatre average just shy of $3000. Only the upper 3 films in beat this in the top 10, but those were most definitely not the best PTA. That crown goes to Suspiria in emphatic fashion as the horror remake earned $179 806 from a very limited release into just two theatres!
And all of this success, whether in the top 10 or outside of it, building on from the record-breaking successes of the past few weeks led by Halloween’s franchise-best opening, has resulted in this being the biggest October in US box office history. With just a couple more days left in the month, October 2018 is already sitting on $786.1 million domestically, topping 2014’s previous $758 million record. In comparison, last year this time, the US box office was sitting on just $557.2 million.
Let’s see what the rest of the US box office chart looks like:
[table ai=”1/No.” class=”table table-striped” tablesorter=”1″]
Movie Name, Weekend gross, Percentage change, US Domestic gross, Worldwide gross, Last Week’s Position
Halloween,$32 million,-58%,$126.6 million,$172.2 million,1st
A Star is Born,$14.1 million,-25%,$148.7 million,$253.3 million,2nd
Venom,$10.8 million,-40%,$187.2 million,$508.3 million,3rd
Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween,$7.5 million,-22%,$38.3 million,$62.5 million,4th
Hunter Killer,$6.6 million,NE,$6.6 million,$6.6 million,NE
The Hate U Give,$5.1 million,-32%,$18.3 million,$19.6 million,6th
First Man,$4.9 million,-40%,$37.8 million,$74.4 million,5th
Smallfoot,$4.7 million,-27%,$72.5 million,$167.5 million,5th
Night School,$3.2 million,-33%,$71.4 million,$90.5 million,8th
Mid-90s,$3 million,+1062%,$3.3 million,$3.3 million,20th
[/table]
