LOS ANGELES — Halloween easily stayed No. 1 at the domestic box office in its second weekend as the spooky holiday nears.
Universal and Blumhouse’s slasher film starring Jamie Lee Curtis picked up another $32 million, marking a 58% decline from its impressive debut. Directed by David Gordon Green, Halloween crossed $100 million on Friday. The movie pocketed $25 million overseas for a total of $172 million worldwide.
Holdovers A Star Is Born and Venom also remained in the top five. Warner Bros.’ A Star Is Born landed in second place with $14 million, dropping just 26% in its fourth outing. Lady Gaga and Bradley’s musical drama has earned $148 million. The acclaimed movie hit $100 million at the international box office for a global total of $253.2 million. Meanwhile, Venom, Sony’s dark superhero film with Tom Hardy, came in third with $10.8 million. That brings its domestic tally to $187 million for a worldwide total of $508.4 million.
Otherwise, studios generally steered clear of the pre-Halloween frame. Lionsgate and Summit’s Hunter Killer, a high-stakes thriller starring Gerard Butler and Gary Oldman, was the only wide release. It wasn’t able to beat Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween as Sony’s family friendly flick came in fourth place with $7.5 million.
Hunter Killer was, at least, able to round out the top five with $6.65 million when it opened in 2,720 locations. The audience, which was predominately male and over the age of 25, gave the film an A- CinemaScore. Critics were far less generous with a Rotten Tomatoes average of 36%.
Elsewhere, Universal’s Johnny English Strikes Again pocketed a meager $1.6 million from 544 screens. An underwhelming performance in the States might not matter considering the movie is virtually engineered for international audiences. The third installment in the Rowan Atkinson-led British spy series launched earlier this month overseas, where it has already earned $107 million.
Does the strong pre-holiday showing mean studios should reconsider sitting out the Halloween weekend? A lot depends on the product, and the Halloween sequel hit all the right elements for success — a timely theme, a beloved property and solid execution.
“It is quite appropriate that a movie called Halloween would deliver a sweet box office treat to the industry that typically suffers a slowdown on this particular weekend,” said Paul Dergarabedian, a senior media analyst with comScore. “Universal picked a perfect release date, inspiring nostalgia and excitement among moviegoers looking for the perfect film to complement their Halloween weekend plans.”
This weekend was up 37.6% over the same frame last year when Jigsaw led the domestic box office, according to comScore. As the month winds to a close, October officially hit a new record in North America. The month was up over 50% from the same frame in 2017. This year’s period brought in $789 million, which was enough to top the benchmark previously set by 2014 with $757 million. — Reuters

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