Box Office Discussion: The Virus is Getting "Freaky"

 

Despite opening two week after Halloween, a new horror movie hits #1, as theaters and studios wonder if they'll be able to survive the winter.

Horror movies that skip Halloween to open during November are usually respectable or classy, or at least desire to be.  Think of last November's Doctor Sleep or Overlord from two years ago, which tried to blend a historical lesson about Nazi atrocities with zombies.  Freaky, this November's horror movie, does not appear to have any pretentions.  It's an old-fashioned slasher movie, albeit one with a well-known lead actor (even if he's a long way from his heyday), a steady dose of comedy, and surprisingly good reviews.  That, along with a Friday the 13th opening date, helped it debut at #1 with $3.6 million, which is better than actual Halloween weekend horror movie Come Play opened at.

Coming in second was last week's champ, Let Him Go, which had a surprisingly sharp decline to $1.8 million, for a ten day total of $6.8 million.  It's 56% decline from its opening weekend is big, both for the pandemic box office, which generally has seen smaller week-to-week declines from the top titles, and for this type of movie generally, since its audience is usually older and not as prone to rush out on opening weekend.  Then again, with the pandemic fairing up to some of the worst numbers since the whole disaster began, it's probably better for the film's target audience (and indeed, everyone) to stay at home and wait for it to pop up on one of the streaming services in a few months.

Family comedy The War With Grandpa is, like The New Mutants, the very rare film that probably made more than it would have under normal circumstances.  The family comedy took in $1.3 million to bring its total to $15.2 million.  It's still $5 million behind Unhinged and $8 million behind Mutants, but given its steady box office, it is a definite threat to catch and pass both.  Then again, next week sees the arrival of The Croods: A New Age, the first new family film to get a wide release since Grandpa opened in October.

The aforementioned Come Play was the only other title this week to top $1 million, making $1.1 million for a total gross of $7.3 million.  Honest Thief, with a gross just under $0.8 million, rounded out the Top 5.

After Tenet in sixth was Guardians of the Galaxy, Disney's now weekly re-release for this weekend.  It could only muster $0.4 million.  Rounding out the Top 10 were True to the Game 2, Toy Story, and another re-release, Elf, which opened to just under $0.2 million.  

Normally, the Friday before Thanksgiving has some of the biggest movies of the season scheduled.  Frozen II opened there last year, for example.  This year, the biggest releases are a Jackie Chan actioner named Vanguard, a drama called The Last Vermeer about an art forger who fooled Nazis, and the re-release of The Santa Clause.  Horror movies typically fall hard in their second weekends.  Could good reviews help Freaky's grosses stay high enough for a second weekend win?  Or could Jackie Chan get his first live-action weekend #1 since The Karate Kid?  We'll find out next week.