{"id":225387,"date":"2025-10-19T21:09:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-19T21:09:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/225387\/"},"modified":"2025-10-19T21:09:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-19T21:09:07","slug":"the-black-phone-2-is-the-hit-blumhouse-needed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/225387\/","title":{"rendered":"The Black Phone 2 is the hit Blumhouse needed"},"content":{"rendered":"

Blumhouse\u2019s long run of flops seems to be at an end.\u00a0Things haven\u2019t been easy for the studio lately, with no legitimate hit in about two years \u2014 not since\u00a0Five Nights at Freddy\u2019s.\u00a0While some of their recent films, like\u00a0Speak No Evil,\u00a0Imaginary, and\u00a0Night Swim, still turned modest profits, they\u2019ve also suffered a string of major flops, including\u00a0Wolf Man,\u00a0Drop\u00a0(which was actually a great thriller<\/a>), and most infamously\u00a0M3GAN 2.0, which killed the franchise last summer.<\/p>\n

Thankfully,\u00a0The Black Phone 2\u00a0has opened slightly above most box office predictions (including our own<\/a>) with Comscore revealing it made $26.5 million. That\u2019s higher than the $23.6 million the original made in the summer of 2022, proving that resurrecting The Grabber was a smart move. While it\u2019s unlikely to have the same kind of legs as the original (which grossed over $90 million domestically), this is a welcome return to form for Blumhouse \u2014 one that will likely continue once\u00a0Five Nights at Freddy\u2019s 2\u00a0opens this Christmas.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Disney\u2019s broken\u00a0Tron\u00a0franchise<\/a> still can\u2019t catch a break, with\u00a0Tron: Ares\u00a0falling a disastrous 66% to second place with $11.1 million, for a $54.5 million domestic total. It\u2019s unlikely to top $70\u201375 million domestically. Lionsgate also had another major bomb with Aziz Ansari\u2019s\u00a0Good Fortune, which laid an egg at only $6.2 million despite the combined star power of Keanu Reeves and Seth Rogen. This continues a troubling trend: broad comedies just aren\u2019t catching on like they used to.<\/p>\n

WB\u2019s\u00a0One Battle After Another\u00a0continued to pull in a decent-sized audience, adding $4 million to its $61 million total. While not a blockbuster, people are showing up, and it should play well into awards season.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

One Oscar contender that\u00a0did\u00a0bomb is Channing Tatum\u2019s\u00a0Roofman\u00a0(which we loved<\/a>), co-starring Kirsten Dunst. Despite its star power, it only made $3.7 million for a $15.5 million domestic total. Star-driven awards fare is dying at the box office this fall, with\u00a0The Smashing Machine\u00a0being one of the year\u2019s biggest disasters \u2014 pulled from over 2,000 theaters this weekend after earning just $11 million domestically. Further down the chart, the Julia Roberts-led\u00a0After the Hunt\u00a0also fared poorly, making only $1.5 million. It seems audiences are waiting to catch these films on streaming \u2014 if at all \u2014 as none have managed to tap into the zeitgeist in any meaningful way.<\/p>\n

Angel Studios has also struggled to generate faith-based hits, with their latest,\u00a0Truth & Treason, debuting to just $2.7 million in sixth place. Family fare hasn\u2019t helped theaters much either, with\u00a0Gabby\u2019s Dollhouse\u00a0earning $1.65 million for a $29 million domestic total.<\/p>\n

Thank God for horror.\u00a0The Conjuring: Last Rites\u00a0remains the season\u2019s only true, unqualified hit, pulling in another $1.5 million for a series-best $175 million total. The only other bona fide success of the season is the anime\u00a0Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle, now the highest-grossing anime of all time in North America, rounding out the top 10 with $1.3 million and a $131 million domestic total.<\/p>\n

Will Crunchyroll\u2019s next release,\u00a0Chainsaw Man, continue their streak? We\u2019ll find out next weekend \u2014 which also sees the release of the much-anticipated\u00a0Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere.\u00a0Here\u2019s hoping\u00a0The Boss\u00a0can help break the current streak of adult dramas flopping. The world needs Springsteen to save the box office!<\/p>\n

What did you see this weekend? Let us know in the comments.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Blumhouse\u2019s long run of flops seems to be at an end.\u00a0Things haven\u2019t been easy for the studio lately,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":225388,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[49,48,75,107871],"class_list":["post-225387","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-entertainment","tag-the-black-phone-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225387","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=225387"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225387\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/225388"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=225387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=225387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=225387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}