‘Halloween’ Kills The Competition Again; ‘Suspiria’ Scores The Biggest Arthouse Opening Of 2018 [Box Office]

Despite a rather weak weekend for new releases, it was a terrific frame to release a horror film this weekend. Universal’s “Halloween” did drop 58% in its second week, but that’s not unheard of for horror, and the David Gordon Green-directed film still raked in another $32 million. This 2018 “Halloween” movie is already the highest grossing film of the series both domestically and worldwide and will soon even beat the original 1978 John Carpenter version when adjusted for inflation. Suffice to say, get ready for another onslaught wave of new sequels (David Gordon Green, please continue doing something different each time out, please).

READ MORE: ‘Halloween’ Franchise: All The Horror Movies Ranked

The movie has grossed $172 million worldwide, but internationally, it hasn’t crossed $50 million yet, and it’s likely not going to connect in a significant way; “Halloween” was just never huge outside the U.S. which is true for many horror properties.

READ MORE: Suspiria & 20 Of The Best, Most Spellbinding Witch Movies

On the flipside of the box office, horror had a great time at the arthouse box office as well. Luca Guadagnino’s incredibly chilling “Suspiria” grossed $179,806 from two screens for a whopping $89,903 per screen average—the highest of 2018 so far. Guadagnino now boasts two films within the top 25 of highest per-screen averages (“Call Me By Your Name” too). “Suspiria” expands into 250 screens next weekend and goes nationwide November 9. Interestingly enough, even though it’s an Amazon Prime movie, it won’t hit the streaming service until 2019 according to the movie’s prime page.

READ MORE: The Essentials: The Films Of John Carpenter [Full Retrospective]

Three new releases hit theaters this weekend— “Hunter Killer” “Johnny English Strikes Again” and “Indivisible“—and all of them had relatively mediocre openings (though to be fair, the latter two weren’t in more than 850 screens). A24’s “Mid90s,” Jonah Hill’s skate drama and directorial debut, expanded into 1,206, grossed $3 million and change and cracked the top 10.

Flipping back to the indie box office, the arthouse remained healthy with Neon Films’ “Border” and Well Go USA’s “Burning” ($71,565 from 7 screens, $10,224 PSA; $28,650 from 2 screens, $14,325 PSA). Frederick Wiseman’s “Monrovia, Indiana” also scored $6,100 this weekend from one screen.

Beyond new releases, “A Star Is Born” and “Venom” continue their domination and hold of the October box office. Bradley Cooper’s music drama continues its slow march to the Oscars (where it could take it all) and has grossed nearly $150 million domestically and $255 million globally. Dropping only -25.8% in weekend four, it appears this movie is not going anywhere soon. Meanwhile, “Venom,” the antihero superhero movie everyone thought would bomb has crossed the $500 million mark worldwide ($508M), and while many doubted if the film could slither its way to a sequel, that seems like a certainty right now. The Tom Hardy-led movie is closing in on $200 million domestically too and had another solid -40.1% hold.

Meanwhile, Universal’s critically acclaimed astronaut drama “First Man” is still struggling. It’s made just as much money abroad as it has domestically—odd for a movie that’s about a quintessentially American achievement and moment in history— and has hit $74 million worldwide, but hasn’t been able to crack $40 million in three weekends. The movie’s grosses could all change come awards season—it’s a movie expected to get nominations in many major categories—but at this point, it’ll never reach the box office heights of its director’s previous effort “La La Land” ($446M globally)

Other notables: You can probably say goodbye to Fox‘s “Bad Times At The El Royale.” In week three, the Drew Goddard film dropped nearly 60%, has fallen out of the top 10, and hasn’t been able to crack $17 million yet. And wow, the climbing documentary “Free Solo” has quietly made $5.1 million so far and hasn’t been on more than 394 screens at one time so far. Would-be Oscar contenders like Amazon‘s “Beautiful Boy” and Annapurna‘s “The Sisters Brothers” are floundering. The latter is still quietly growing but doesn’t seem to have made the kind of big dent the studio was hoping for (Timothee Chalamet still has hopes though). The latter cost $32 million, dropped -64% this weekend and only made $271K this weekend. It’s a terrific film, one of the year’s best, but having only grossed $2.7 million so far, “The Sisters Brothers” may end up one of the biggest indie flops of the year.

1. Halloween —  $32,045,000 ($$126,698,400)
2. A Star is Born —$14,145,000 ($148,722,400)
3. Venom — $10,800,000 ($187,282,314)
4.Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween —$7,500,000 ($38,348,809)
5. Hunter Killer  —$6,650,000
6. The Hate U Give — $6,650,000 – ($18,300,005)
7.  First Man —$4,935,000 ($37,880,080)
8. Small Foot — $4,750,000 ($72,591,050)
9. Night School — $3,255,000 ($71,451,025)
10.Mid90s — $3,000,000 ($3,350,170)