by Conan Simmons – October 18, 2021 – 6:16 am
The latest installment in the long running horror franchise started by John Carpenter in 1978 takes over the top spot from the latest installment in the longer running spy thriller franchise that began in England in 1962.
‘Halloween Kills’ deftly replaced ‘No Time to Die’ at number one over the weekend. Franchise star Jamie Lee Curtis took on the mask wearing killer Michael Myers once again to the tune of $50.4 million, which is just shy of ‘No Time to Die’s debut weekend by a few million. As for James Bond, ‘No Time to Die’ dropped 57% from its debut weekend which is about average for a sophomore weekend regardless of film.
The scare fest ‘Halloween Kills’ is a day-and-date release available to stream on Peacock for a premium charge. While all other outlets are touting how the film is a hit in spite of streaming I can’t help but wonder if the box office could have been higher if it were a theater only release.
To counter that thought, consider the weekends only other major release that is a theatrical only release, ‘The Last Duel’, a historical picture directed by Ridley Scott and starring Jodie Comer in a role generating a lot of awards buzz. Historical movies are a genre that hasn’t been too popular in recent years and, unfortunately, that seems to be the case here as well. ‘The Last Duel’ barely makes scratch at the box office taking in a paltry $4.8 million, the film has a budget of roughly $100 million before adding marketing costs.
Get ready for some talk in the coming months as ‘The Last Duel’ makes Oscar headway in spite of bombing at the box office. It will also fuel a continuing conversation regarding movies that do well with critics, as ‘The Last Duel’ has receiving positive reviews, but fail at the box office when critically panned films, such as ‘Venom: Let There Be Carnage’ and even ‘Halloween Kills’, do very well with theater goers.
Filling out the Weekend Box Office Top 5 is the aforementioned superhero fantasy ‘Venom: Let There Be Carnage’ and the animated sequel ‘The Addams Family 2’.
The Top 5 as a whole maintained a steady rate from last week dropping just a hair by half a percent.
WEEKEND BOX OFFICE TOP 5 (October 15-17, 2021)
- ‘Halloween Kills’ – $50.4 million – horror (debut)
- ‘No Time to Die’ – $24.3 million – action (drop $31.7 million, 57% down)
- ‘Venom: Let There Be Carnage’ – $16.5 million – fantasy (drop $15.5 million, 48% down)
- ‘The Addams Family 2’ – $7.2 million – animated (drop $2.8 million, 28% down)
- ‘The Last Duel’ – $4.8 million – historical (debut)
Total for the Weekend Box Office Top 5 comes to $103.2 million. This is a drop of only .5% or $500k from last weekends total of $103.7 million.
As stated last week, look out for more turbulence at the box office as awards season heats up and more movies are released. ‘The Last Duel’ is likely to drop out of the Top 5 next weekend as ‘Dune’ tries to conquer the top spot. The sci-fi epic has been doing very well overseas where it has already made more than $100 million. The day-and-date release on HBO Max here in the United States will absolutely eat into the box office takings, but will it do much to stop the film from dominating? Probably not. As ‘Dune’ has already made so much overseas it really only needs to perform about the same as ‘Halloween Kills’ did over the weekend to be considered a hit. Some analysts are pegging the director Denis Villeneuve’s sci-fi remake to come it at around $30 million, but with the amount of excitement from fans and lots of good buzz, even as reviews are mixed, On Genre is forecasting the $50 million range. It would be nice if it were to make more but that’s a realm currently occupied only by superheroes.
Next weekend also brings director Wes Anderson’s ‘The French Dispatch’ into limited release. The limited release strategy will most likely prevent it from making the Weekend Box Office Top 5 even as it stars Timothée Chalamet who also stars in ‘Dune’.
Halloween weekend will bring two horror films into release, the Guillermo del Toro produced ‘Antlers’ starring Keri Russell and Jesse Plemons along with director Edgar Wright’s psychological time twister ‘Last Night in Soho’ starring Anya Taylor-Joy.
Don’t expect a single film to reach anywhere close to $100 million until next month when Marvel releases the next installment of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, ‘Eternals’, starring Salma Hayek, Kumail Nanjiani, Angelina Jolie and Kit Harrington.
Even as horror films and animated movies continue to show staying power in the Weekend Box Office Top 5, it’s only the comic book superhero movies that do the heavy lifting at the box office.