Let it be known that this past weekend belonged to one film and one film only: Halloween.
The Blumhouse-backed horror sequel opened to an eye-watering $77.5 million at the box office – second only to New Line’s It when it comes to R-rated horror openings. That’s impressive in and of itself, particularly when you consider that Venom had only just gone and set a new October record with $80.2 million two weeks ago.
All of this has led series veteran Jamie Lee Curtis to raise a glass to Halloween‘s record-setting debut via Twitter, where she lauded David Gordon Green’s R-rated thriller as the “biggest horror movie opening with a female lead. Biggest movie opening with a female lead over 55. Second biggest October movie opening ever. Biggest Halloween [movie] opening ever.”
So, it’s not too hard to imagine Universal execs stuffing their pockets as the box office revenue continues to trickle in. Whether this is enough to prompt talk of a sequel remains to be seen, but at least for now, Curtis is enjoying her time in the sun.
https://twitter.com/jamieleecurtis/status/1054058182937464833
To put things into perspective, a $77.5 million opening is almost three times that of the previous Halloween record-holder, given Rob Zombie’s doomed 2007 remake scored $26 million more than a decade ago. So together, David Gordon Green, Jeff Fradley, and Danny McBride have knocked it out of the park – the question, really, is whether Universal gets the band back together for round two…
Buoyed by stellar reviews and a healthy box office cume, Halloween is off to a cracking start in theaters, where it’ll continue to reign for at least another few weeks – the only real film of significance that’s coming down the pike is Suspiria, though we have a sneaking suspicion that Luca Guadagnino’s remake will cater to a niche audience come Friday.