A year behind schedule, David Gordon Green’s Halloween Kills is finally playing in theaters and on Peacock, where it’s poised to dominate the conversation all weekend. The opening chapter of the trilogy was a phenomenal way to reinvigorate the property, even if the wheels have come off a little the second time out.
As per Deadline, the slasher sequel nabbed $4.9 million from Thursday night previews, which is the best figure yet for the genre during the pandemic era. The return of Michael Myers comfortably eclipsed A Quiet Place Part II, Candyman and The Forever Purge, so it’s off to a strong start.
Early projections had Halloween Kills in line for a three-day weekend around $40 million, which won’t be enough to claim the crown of highest-grossing first frame for horror in the age of COVID-19, which belongs to A Quiet Place Part II, but that was to be expected given that the film is available to stream from day one.
Reviews have been drastically less enthusiastic when compared to its predecessor, but every wide release in the last eighteen months has had an asterisk placed next to its name at the box office, so nobody’s really expecting Halloween Kills to come close to matching the opener’s $255 million haul.