Box Office Discussion: Only a Few Came to "Play"

 

A new horror movie eked out a narrow Halloween weekend win, as the box office continues to flatline.

Given that Halloween was on Saturday, it was always destined to be a slow weekend.  Of course, with a vigorous October release schedule and a fully-functioning society, whatever finished at #1 would have done considerably better than this week's champion, Come Play.  The horror flick, about a young boy haunted by a creature unleased by his iPad, took in $3.1 million.  Given that it is a horror movie, and we are now past Halloween, expect this film to fade fast in the coming weeks.

Only two other movies were able to pull over a million dollars this weekend.  Last week's #1, the Liam Neeson thriller Honest Thief, took in $1.4 million, to bring its total to a not-awful $9.6 million.  The Robert De Niro family comedy The War With Grandpa made $1.3 million, for a gross of $11.5 million.

Coming in fourth was Tenet, which made $0.9 million for a total of $53.8 million.  In 5th through 8th was long-shelved horror flop The Empty Man and Disney Halloween re-releases Hocus Pocus, The Nightmare Before Christmas, and Monsters, Inc., all of which seem likely to vanish again after this weekend.

Opening in ninth with $0.2 million was the horror flick Spell, starring Loretta Devine, who hopefully got a good paycheck.  The plot makes it sound like Misery with some supernatural elements mixed in.  The film is also available on VOD.  The animated Addams Family rounded out the Top 10.

The week's other wide opening, a re-release of 2019's Alita: Battle Angel, came in 12th, with just a bit over $100,000.

This week would normally kick off the holiday movie season, but instead, our only new wide release is the neo-Western Let Him Go, starring Kevin Costner and Diane Lane as a couple of ranchers who set out to rescue their late son's wife and their grandson from the clutches of her new husband and his evil family.  This one should win the weekend easily.  The only other wide release will be Toy Story, returning to theaters to celebrate its 25th anniversary.  Will the newcomers breathe some life into the multiplexes?  We'll find out next week.