As expected, Halloween weekend is proving to be more of a trick than a treat, with it on track to become the lowest-grossing weekend of the year. Indeed, no movie is likely to come close to posting double digits this weekend, with The Black Phone 2, in its third weekend, the likely box office champion with a $7 million weekend. That’s precisely what we predicted earlier this week, although we were wrong in our guess that KPop Demon Hunters would lead the weekend. While Netflix never reports their box office grosses, Deadline says the film is looking at only about $3.4 million for the weekend, which isn’t bad for a limited release with only a few showtimes a day. However, it seems like the KPop Demon Hunters juggernaut is slowing down a bit – after a pretty incredible run.Â
It should be edged out by Yorgos Lanthimos’s Bugonia, which is on track for about $4.5 million, which marks the best opening ever for the director. His movies tend to be leggy at the box office, so the hope at Focus is that Bugonia will have a long run propelled by Oscar buzz. Whatever the case, it’s outperforming – at least relative to cost and per screen averages – other Oscar hopefuls like After the Hunt and The Smashing Machine.Â
Second place this weekend seems likely to go to Regretting You, which is expected to gross in the $6.5 million range, while Chainsaw Man is expected to follow with $5.5 million. It also looks like the IMAX re-release of Back to the Future should finish just ahead of Bugonia with a $5 million gross, which is pretty outstanding for a movie pretty much every self-respecting movie fan owns on at least one format (or – if you’re like me – about four of them). No word yet on how Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere is performing in week two, but it isn’t expected to have much of a hold in week two.Â
What are you seeing this weekend? Let us know in the comments!