Halloween is never a great time for moviegoing thanks to parties and trick-or-treating, and this year was no exception.
Some box office costumes were better than others: Denis Villeneueve’s Dune stayed at No. 1 in its second weekend as expected with $15.5 million from 4,125 theaters for a 10-day domestic total of $69.4 million for Legendary and Warner Bros.
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Dune fell 62 percent, a relatively solid hold considering Halloween distractions.
Halloween Kills clearly benefited from its namesake holiday. The Universal, Miramax and Blumhouse installment held at No. 2 in its third weekend with $8.5 million from 3,616 locations for an impressive domestic tally of $85.6 million.
James Bond pic No Time to Die followed at No. 3 in its third outing with $7.8 million for a domestic cume of $133.3 million.
Supernatural-tinged Japanese anime pic My Hero Academia: World Heroes Mission pulled off the biggest surprise of the weekend in opening to more than $6 million from only 1,600 locations to place No. 4. FUNimation is distributing the movie in the U.S. on behalf of Japan’s Toho.
The big disappointment of the trick-or-treat parade was Edgar Wright’s psychological horror film The Last Night in Soho, which, despite tons of buzz, opened to $4.2 million from 3,016 theaters to come in No. 6. Tracking had suggested the critically acclaimed specialty film might approach $8 million (Wright is the filmmaker behind Baby Driver.)
Wright’s movie stars Thomasin McKenzie, Anna Taylor-Joy and Matt Smith. The film also features the late Diana Rigg and Terence Stamp. “There are few bigger champions of the theatrical experience than Edgar, and we couldn’t be prouder he has made Focus his home,” Focus Features distribution president Lisa Bunnell said.
Opening a specialty film in 3,000 or so theaters can be risky.
Searchlight Pictures used the same approach for Antlers, which also hoped to parlay its supernatural themes into Halloween movie ticket sales. The results were similar. Directed by Scott Cooper and released by Searchlight Pictures, the movie debuted to an estimated $4.2 million from 2,800 cinemas to tie with Last Night in Soho. (The final order will be determined Monday.)
Both Last Night in Soho and Antlers were delayed from their original 2020 releases because of the pandemic.
Also on the specialty front, Wes Anderson’s The French Dispatch made a major push in its second weekend as it expanded from 52 locations to 788. The results were muted; the Searchlight movie took in $2.3 million for a 10-day total of $4.2 million.
More to come.
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