Halloween was light on the box office treats.
Ticket sales nearly ground to a halt without any new releases, as well as the misfortune of the spooky holiday landing on Friday (meaning families were trick-or-treating, not visiting their local movie theater). Another distraction was Saturday night’s Major League Baseball championships, which saw the Los Angeles Dodgers score a victory over the Toronto Blue Jays in a nail-biting Game 7. As a result, revenues between Friday and Sunday amounted to just $43 million, marking the worst weekend of the entire year, according to Comscore.
“The cavalry cannot get here soon enough,” says Comscore’s head of marketplace trends, Paul Dergarabedian. “The industry is in dire need of a boost [after] this scary-slow World Series-impacted, Halloween-festivity-laden weekend. It’s emblematic of what has been a quiet post-summer moviegoing corridor.”
Another scary stat: This closes out the lowest-grossing October in 27 years with domestic earnings stalling at an abysmal $425 million, the poorest haul since October 1997 with $385 million, not adjusted for inflation. This ignominious record doesn’t include 2020, when theaters hadn’t rebounded from the pandemic.
Although Halloween is traditionally a moribund period at the box office, October is usually the time when studios start to launch their awards hopefuls. Instead of providing a box office jolt, though, Oscar contenders and big-budget tentpoles alike, such as Dwayne Johnson’s “The Smashing Machine,” Luca Guadagnino’s “After the Hunt,” Disney’s “Tron: Ares” and “Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere” struggled to show signs of life.
In a surprise win, the Colleen Hoover adaptation “Regretting You” rose to No. 1 with $8.1 million from 3,424 theaters in its sophomore outing. However, Universal’s “Black Phone 2” was ever-so-slightly behind with $8 million from 3,305 venues — so the final order could shift when final numbers are confirmed on Monday.
“Regretting You” declined just 41% from its debut, bringing ticket sales to $27.5 million in North America and $50 million globally against a $30 million budget. Hoover is the author of last year’s sleeper hit “It Ends With Us.” Two of her other novels, “Verity” and “Reminders of Him,” are being adapted by other studios for theatrical release in 2026.
“Black Phone 2” has grossed $61 million domestically and $104 million globally to date. The scary sequel is this year’s only Blumhouse release to get anywhere near the $100 million mark, though “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2” in December will attempt to continue the good fortunes.
In another potential photo finish, Netflix’s “KPop Demon Hunters” re-release likely tied for No. 3 with Sony and Crunchyroll’s “Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc,” with both films estimating a $6 million weekend haul.
Netflix isn’t reporting grosses for “KPop Demon Hunters,” which played 2,890 theaters over the weekend, so projections hail from rival studios and exhibitors. This is the second big-screen stint for the animated musical, which first screened theatrically in August (after becoming Netflix’s most popular film ever) and led in North America with roughly $18 million.
“Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc,” which topped the box office last weekend, has grossed $30 million in North America to date. Like many anime films, “Chainsaw Man” has been much bigger at the international box office, with earnings at $109 million overseas and $139 million globally.
In fifth place, “Bugonia,” the latest collaboration between director Yorgos Lanthimos and star Emma Stone, successfully expanded nationwide with $4.8 million from 2,043 theaters. The film, in which Stone portrays a high-powered tech CEO who is kidnapped by two conspiracy theorists who believe she is an extraterrestrial being sent to destroy Earth, earned a “B” grade on CinemaScore exit polls. However, that kind of middling reception isn’t unusual for a polarizing film, as Lanthimos is wont to make. Ticket buyers were mostly younger males, with men accounting for 61% of audiences and 24 to 34-year-olds representing 39% of crowds.
Elsewhere, “Back to the Future” returned to theaters in honor of the film’s 40th anniversary and collected a respectable $4.7 million from 2,105 theaters over the weekend. “The Twilight Saga” also made its way back to the big screen to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the publishing of author Stephanie Meyer’s first novel. Theaters are playing one of the five “Twilight” films each night between Oct. 29 and Nov. 2, which have collectively accounted for roughly $3 million from 1,500 locations.
Next weekend sees the debut of Disney’s “Predator: Badlands,” followed by heist threequel “Now You See Me: Now You Don’t” and Edgar Wright and Glen Powell’s “The Running Man” remake. But business might not pick up in earnest until the Thanksgiving corridor when Disney’s “Zootopia 2” and Universal’s “Wicked: For Good” float to theaters. Then James Cameron’s “Avatar: Fire and Ash” on Dec. 19 is expected to end the year with a bang.
“Early November releases will be most welcome,” says Dergarabedian. “But mid-November through New Year’s Eve will be vitally important [for] the industry.”
