Box Office: ‘Halloween’ Is Now the Biggest Slasher Film In History
Although it did drop almost 60 percent from its stellar $77.5 million opening, Halloween still grossed another $32 million in its second weekend in theaters. All in, that means the film has made $126.7 million to date. So after 10 days in theaters, it is already the biggest slasher film in the history of Hollywood, dethroning the previous champion, the original Scream, which earned $103 million in theaters in 1996.
Here’s the full weekend box office chart:
Film | Weekend | Per Screen | Total | |
1 | Halloween | $32,045,000 (-58%) | $8,031 | $126,698,400 |
2 | A Star Is Born | $14,145,000 (-25%) | $3,623 | $148,722,400 |
3 | Venom | $10,800,000 (-40%) | $3,028 | $187,282,314 |
4 | Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween | $7,500,000 (-22%) | $2,015 | $38,348,809 |
5 | Hunter Killer | $6,650,000 | $2,438 | $6,650,000 |
6 | The Hate U Give | $5,100,000 (-32%) | $2,147 | $18,300,005 |
7 | First Man | $4,935,000 (-40%) | $1,668 | $37,880,080 |
8 | Smallfoot | $4,750,000 (-27%) | $1,784 | $72,591,050 |
9 | Night School | $3,255,000 (-33%) | $1,635 | $71,451,025 |
10 | Mid90s | $3,000 (+1,062%) | $2,488 | $3,350,170 |
The new Halloween is also the third biggest film in Blumhouse Productions history, behind only Get Out and Split. And it’s already the sixth biggest R-rated horror film of any kind in history, although it’s not going to come close to catching the number one title on that list, last year’s It and its $327.4 million.
Audiences are loving the new horror releases this October — especially the ones inspired by or based on old films. The other big winner last weekend was the 2018 remake of Suspiria, which grossed an amazing $89,000 per screen in its first three days of release. The film will expand to about 250 screens next weekend. That was far and away the best PSA of the weekend by a factor of about five.
The news wasn’t quite so good across the board, however. As noted by the Hollywood Reporter, a long-delayed film called London Fields debuted with the second-worst opening weekend grosses ever (or at least since 1982, which is how far back Box Office Mojo’s list goes). Playing in 613 theaters around the country, the film — which stars Amber Heard, Billy Bob Thornton, and Cara Delevigne — earned $160,000, for an average of $261.
Those numbers are estimated, but if they hold true that would mean just one movie across the span of eternity (since 1982) had a worse wide opening, the 2008 release Proud American. (That movie flopped so badly I have literally never heard of it until now.) London Fields was finished back in 2015, but was tied up in legal battles until now. Perhaps that is where it should have stayed.
Gallery - The Biggest Second Weekends in Box Office History: