'Halloween' Screams $32M Second Weekend As October B.O. Hits $789M+ Record
While it's often written that the weekend that lands prior to or around Halloween is deathly slow, it really depends on what the studios put on the marquee. We could have said the same thing about the third weekend in October, that it's just a platform for lackluster wares, a pig pile of counter-programming.
But Universal/Miramax/Blumhouse's Halloween proved that business theory wrong last weekend with the second-best start ever for the month with $76.2M. And the horror sequel is showing again that there's money to be made at the end of October, with a studio-reported second weekend of $32M second weekend, -58%, a great hold for a slasher, beating the second weekend of such horror movies as The Nun (-66%) and The Conjuring 2 (-63%) and not that far from Annabelle: Creation (-55%). Halloween saw a $13.8M second Saturday, repping a 38% uptick over its second Friday.
The Millennium-financed Hunter Killer is deep-sixing in 5th place with a studio-reported $6.6M at 2,720 theaters, lower than what the industry was figuring on Saturday morning. It's Butler's second stateside release this year after STX's Den of Thieves, which opened to $15.2M and finaled at $44.9M domestic, $80.5M WW. The actor has survived single-digit openings before in his career, but this is his first since 2012's Playing for Keeps ($5.7M). Industry sources are figuring that the movie cost around $40M, and that Bulter was paid around $10M. Lionsgate took U.S. and U.K. rights, apparently covering 10% of the production cost (others figure that share is higher). Domestic P&A is estimated in the teens. These numbers just aren't dazzling enough to make a case for any kind of serious stateside profit, if we figure that at bare minimum Lionsgate is in the hole for $20M. Also, when it comes to Butler lately, his worth is abroad, where his movies can do well over $100M, including his recent clunkers Geostorm ($187.9M foreign to $33.7M domestic) and Gods of Egypt ($119.5M to $31.1M). Today's $2.5M includes $420K Thursday previews at 2,200.
Those who bought tickets were 62% male to 38% female and 85% over 25 years old. Mix was 57% Caucasian, 18% Hispanic, 14% Asian and 10% African American. The film is doing scattered business throughout the country with the top five theaters coming from DC, Omaha, Seattle, Oklahoma City, and Columbia SC. LA & NY.
Johnny English Strikes Again, the third in the Rowan Atkinson comedy series, will make Working Title and Universal executives happy this weekend as it shoots the $100M threshold, with $15M alone from the UK. Uni went limited with the pic at 544 locations and it's nothing fantastic, with a $1.6M weekend in 12th place after a $517K Friday and $672K Saturday . Critics have decided they've had enough of this 15-year-old franchise, which once upon a time, with its first installment, drew a $28M final gross stateside, repping 18% of its final $160M global take. Again, it's an obligation for the studio to release the movie stateside, not a priority like other markets where Atkinson still wins out. Huge social media universe here of 202.6M for the threequel, according to RelishMix, but it's all driven by international reach and activity.
Faring well is A24's expansion of Jonah Hill's Los Angeles street skateboard teen drama Mid90s, which, in an expansion from 4 locations to 1,206 in 187 markets, is looking at a $1.3M Friday, weekend 2 of $3M in 10th, 10-day of $3.3M. Biggest draw were males at 62%, with 53% under 25 and the single largest quad being 18-24 at 37%. The mix was 50% Caucasian, 27% Hispanic, 15% Asian, and 7% African American. Those who showed rated it at 83% in the top two boxes, with a 62% recommend. The film had decent numbers in San Francisco, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Austin, and Miami.
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