How Much $$ Will HALLOWEEN Make Opening Weekend?
As we all know by this point in time, Blumhouse and filmmaking team Danny McBride and David Gordon Green have a direct sequel to John Carpenter’s Halloween heading our way, and it will be stalking your local multiplex sooner rather than later. And today we have word on just how much the new movie is predicted to make opening weekend.
While it seems a bit early to make such predictions, the guys over at Box-Office Pro are claiming Halloween is tracking to score an opening weekend of $50-60 million!
I don’t mean to be the wet blanket here, but that figure seems super high to me. I mean, let it be known, I hope the film is that successful. I just think this prediction is shooting a bit too high. Personally, I think Halloween will score around $35-40 million opening weekend.
The site is claiming that horror is back in a big way. Thank God that I agree with that statement, but the site goes on to say that the film’s predicted is due to the success of recent horror juggernauts as The Nun, which opened to $50+ million earlier this month, and Stephen King’s IT (which earned ALL the money back when it opened to $123 million in September of last year). Halloween can’t be held to these standards.
One of the biggest reasons I think Halloween will fall short of such opening weekend behemoths such as The Nun and Stephen King’s IT is that the film is not just a horror movie. Horror movies have their own set of issues overtaking the box-office, but on top of being an R-rated horror movie, Blumhouse’s Halloween is a slasher film.
And slashers don’t do well at the box-office.
For instance, Wes Craven’s meta-slasher Scream is currently the highest grossing slasher film at the domestic box-office, and it has been that way since the movie opened way the fuck back in December of 1996. That’s a whopping 22 years ago (!) and no other slasher (PG-13 or not) has ever come close to beating Scream‘s domestic haul of $103 million.
Yes, you read that right, other than Wes Craven’s Scream 2, no other slasher film in the history of cinema has ever scored more than $100 million at the domestic box-office. That said, I think if any movie can take away Scream‘s slasher crown it will be Blumhouse’s Halloween. And I’d like another slasher to see this kind of box-office ducket. I just can’t help but be the guy that says I doubt it.
In fact, the top ten slasher movies at the domestic box-office break down like this:
Scream
Opening Weekend: $6.3 million
Domestic Total: $103 million
Scream 2
Opening Weekend: $32.9 million
Domestic Total: $101.3 million
Scream 3
Opening Weekend: $34.7 million
Domestic Total: $89.1 million
Freddy Vs. Jason
Opening Weekend: $36.4 million
Domestic Total: $82.6 million
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003)
Opening Weekend: $28 million
Domestic Total: $80.5 million
I Know What You Did Last Summer
Opening Weekend: $15.8 million
Domestic Total: $72.5 million
Friday the 13th (2009)
Opening Weekend: $40.5 million
Domestic Total: $65 million
A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010)
Opening Weekend: $32.9 million
Domestic Total: $63 million
Halloween (2007)
Opening Weekend: $26.3 million
Domestic Total: $58.2 million
Halloween: H20
Opening Weekend: $16.1 million
Domestic Total: $55 million
As you can see, slashers struggle at the box-office. Hell, let’s say that Blumhouse’s Halloween DOUBLES what Rob Zombie’s Halloween made back in 2007. That’d give the film an opening weekend of $52.6 million. Do you really think people are MORE excited about this new version than they were for Rob (“I just directed the modern classic The Devil’s Rejects“) Zombie’s remake? I don’t know about that…
Hopefully, I’m wrong. Hopefully, when Blumhouse’s Halloween finally stalks and slashes it’s rebooted ass into our local multiplexes this October, it will positively murder the box-office, giving even Pennywise the Dancing Clown a run for his cock-eyed money. But truthfully I’ll settle for a The Nun-sized opening of $50-60 million – with the chance of topping Wes Craven’s Scream as the slasher supreme when all is said and done.
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How much do you think Halloween will score opening weekend? Make sure to hit us up and let us know in the comments section or on Facebook, Twitter, and/or Instagram!
Halloween is directed by David Gordon Green based on a script he wrote with Danny McBride. Jamie Lee Curtis returns as Laurie Strode as does Nick Castle as Michael “The Shape” Myers. They are joined by Will Patton, Andi Matichak, and Judy Greer. John Carpenter is on board as executive producer and composer.
The release date is October 19, 2018.
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