{"id":202745,"date":"2025-10-15T21:51:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-15T21:51:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/202745\/"},"modified":"2025-10-15T21:51:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T21:51:08","slug":"horror-sequel-opening-weekend-estimates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/202745\/","title":{"rendered":"Horror Sequel Opening Weekend Estimates"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tWill \u201cThe Black Phone 2<\/a>\u201d end Blumhouse\u2019s downtrodden box office streak?<\/p>\n

\n\tThe horror sequel, again starring Ethan Hawke as the serial killer known as the Grabber, is targeting a debut of $23 to $29 million from 3,200 North American theaters. Since pre-release tracking has wildly missed the mark in recent weeks, studio sources are conservatively suggesting an $18 million opening weekend. Universal is distributing the $30 million-budgeted film. Though a wide range, projections are similar to the first \u201cBlack Phone,\u201d which opened to $23 million in 2021 as theaters were just starting to recover from COVID. That film became a breakout hit with $161 million globally.<\/p>\n

\n\tBlumhouse could use a win on that scale. The horror empire behind scary-profitable hits like \u201cParanormal Activity,\u201d \u201cThe Purge,\u201d \u201cGet Out\u201d and \u201cHalloween\u201d is enduring a rare bumpy patch in theaters. Misfires in 2025 include January\u2019s \u201cWolf Man\u201d ($34 million against a $25 million budget), March\u2019s \u201cThe Woman in the Yard\u201d ($23 million against a $12 million budget), April\u2019s \u201cDrop\u201d ($28 million against an $8 million budget), and June\u2019s \u201cM3GAN 2.0\u201d ($39 million against a $25 million budget). As part of its business model, Blumhouse avoids major financial disasters by keeping costs low. But the company, which partners with Universal to distribute most of its films, is hoping that \u201cThe Black Phone 2\u201d and this December\u2019s \u201cFive Nights at Freddy\u2019s 2\u201d will help restore its luster.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe Black Phone 2\u201d should easily lead the domestic box office over last weekend\u2019s champion, Disney\u2019s sci-fi sequel \u201cTron: Ares,\u201d as well as another newcomer, Aziz Ansari\u2019s supernatural comedy \u201cGood Fortune<\/a>.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tReleased by Lionsgate, \u201cGood Fortune\u201d is aiming for $6 million to $8 million from 2,985 theaters. The well-reviewed film cost $30 million. Ansari, best known for \u201cParks and Recreation\u201d and Netflix\u2019s \u201cMaster of None,\u201d wrote and directed \u201cGood Fortune,\u201d which is his first feature film. (The multi-hyphenate was meant to make his directorial debut with Searchlight\u2019s \u201cBeing Mortal,\u201d which was infinitely suspended in 2022 over complaints about actor Bill Murray\u2019s inappropriate behavior on set.) He also stars alongside Keanu Reeves, Seth Rogen and Keke Palmer.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cGood Fortune\u201d revolves around a good-intentioned but inept angel (Reeves) who facilitates a body swap between a struggling gig worker (Ansari) and a wealthy venture capitalist (Rogen). Variety\u2019s chief film critic Peter Debruge singled out the performance of Reeves<\/a>, whom he\u2019s dubbed \u201cthis movie\u2019s MVP,\u201d adding that \u201cbeneath the jokes, \u2018Good Fortune\u2019 serves as a working-class critique of contemporary capitalism.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tOverall, this weekend looks to extend a sluggish October at the box office. With the Warner Bros. video game adaptation \u201cMortal Kombat II\u201d moving to 2026, movie theater attendance isn\u2019t expected to pick up until much later in the fall season when Disney\u2019s extraterrestrial adventure \u201cPredator: Badlands,\u201d Lionsgate\u2019s heist thriller \u201cNow You See Me: Now You Don\u2019t,\u201d Universal\u2019s musical adaptation \u201cWicked: For Good\u201d and Disney\u2019s animated sequel \u201cZootopia 2\u201d make their way to the big screen.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe industry will have to wait for the holiday season to start and the big November and December titles to deliver big box office results,\u201d says Comscore\u2019s head of marketplace trends Paul Dergarabedian. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Will \u201cThe Black Phone 2\u201d end Blumhouse\u2019s downtrodden box office streak? The horror sequel, again starring Ethan Hawke…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":202746,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[96,57941,2839,87772,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-202745","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-good-fortune","10":"tag-movies","11":"tag-the-black-phone-2","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202745","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=202745"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202745\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/202746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=202745"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=202745"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=202745"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}