'Halloween' opened with $77.5 million, the second highest ever for a horror movie
Just over a year ago, the adaptation of Stephen King's It shook horror fandom with a $123.4 million opening weekend -- the highest ever for a horror movie. Now Halloween is here to join the party.
The 40-years-later sequel that opened on Friday picked up an estimated $77.5 million in the U.S. during its opening weekend. That's not quite It levels of success, but it's more than enough to make Halloween's first three days the second highest for an R-rated horror movie.
In an amusing twist, Halloween's ascendance to that #2 spot effectively unseats the previous box office runner-up, The Nun, which opened in September just a day before the one-year anniversary of It's release. Horror, in case you haven't noticed, is very "in" right now.
Halloween also fell shy of breaking another record: Top October box office of all time.
Prior to 2018, that distinction went to Gravity, the Sandra Bullock-starring outer space thriller that opened with $55.8 million. It was Venom that swooped in earlier this October to set a new record, with an $80.3 million opening. Just ahead of Halloween.
It was nonetheless a great start for the sequel, which brings back Jamie Lee Curtis, star of the original, for a modern-day face-off with Michael Myers. Halloween is, by most accounts, a great movie -- horror or otherwise -- and one that smartly uses humor to offset the big scare moments.
All box office data provided by comScore and Box Office Mojo.
Topics Film
Adam Rosenberg is a Senior Games Reporter for Mashable, where he plays all the games. Every single one. From AAA blockbusters to indie darlings to mobile favorites and browser-based oddities, he consumes as much as he can, whenever he can.Adam brings more than a decade of experience working in the space to the Mashable Games team. He previously headed up all games coverage at Digital Trends, and prior to that was a long-time, full-time freelancer, writing for a diverse lineup of outlets that includes Rolling Stone, MTV, G4, Joystiq, IGN, Official Xbox Magazine, EGM, 1UP, UGO and others.Born and raised in the beautiful suburbs of New York, Adam has spent his life in and around the city. He's a New York University graduate with a double major in Journalism and Cinema Studios. He's also a certified audio engineer. Currently, Adam resides in Crown Heights with his dog and his partner's two cats. He's a lover of fine food, adorable animals, video games, all things geeky and shiny gadgets.
