| Photo credit: Andrew Eccles/Universal Pictures |
Welcome to the first Weekend Movie Takeaway; a regular feature in which we will draw conclusions about viewing habits and future films from weekend box office numbers.
The major story from this weekend at the movies is of course the massive success of David Gordon Green's Halloween, a sequel-ignoring sequel to the original Halloween (1978), released by Universal/Blumhouse and featuring Jamie Lee Curtis as Laurie Strode — her most iconic character — for the first time since Halloween: H20 (1998), one of many other Halloween entries the new film has narratively paved over.
The new Halloween made a staggering $77.5 million throughout its opening weekend, breaking a number of box office records: It's the highest opening weekend ever for a female-fronted horror film, and the highest opening ever for a film starring a woman over 55. It was also the second highest October opening weekend (beaten by the recently-released Venom), and the second highest ever horror opening weekend (a record still owned by last year's Stephen King adaptation, It).
Reliable horror hitmaker Blumhouse has a knack for penetrative marketing and good timing; both those factors are at play here. Still, it feels like the major driving force behind the success of Halloween is the most coveted of movie-making commodities: Nostalgia. Unlike many films from the house of Blum, Halloween comes with a name that means something to multiple generations, and they all appeared to turn out over the weekend.
Green and his co-writers Danny McBride and Jeff Fradley also deserve credit, both for making a (relatively) thoughtful slasher film that emphasizes the post-traumatic stress endured by Laurie Strode, and for facilitating nostalgia by showing affection and respect for John Carpenter's original work.
Hollywood loves nothing more than chasing tangible success, and while numbers generated by the new Halloween likely won't result in a rash of horror movies starring women of a certain age, it bodes well for the rights holders of the slasher/horror genre's other two most recognized franchises: A Nightmare On Elm Street, which saw an inert reboot in 2010 and Friday the 13th, which saw the same in 2009.
The former property is currently in a dormancy that is sure to be shaken by Halloween's box office bonanza.
While the latter franchise was recently mired in a complicated legal squabble between the screenwriter and the producers over ownership of the original 1980 film, it appears to have been cleared up. As of Monday, there is talk of a Friday the 13th reboot, to be produced by Vertigo Entertainment and LeBron James’ SpringHill Entertainment.
Going beyond the number one film, Bradley Cooper's A Star Is Born is holding firm in second place on its third week of release, demonstrating rare box-office staying power in a movie-going era defined by the opening weekend.
The Warner Bros. romantic drama co-starring Lady Gaga is now a bona fide modern classic, having earned $126 million so far, with its global rollout only now properly getting underway. With devoted fans contributing to online chatter about the film, A Star Is Born is generating the kind of repeat business that makes studio executives weak in the knees. Could a Funny Girl rehash be on the horizon?
Following its record-setting opening ($80 million), Sony's Marvel-adjacent film Venom also continues to draw large audiences in its third weekend, despite not being a particularly well-regarded movie. Its success speaks to both the unstoppable nature of anything related to Marvel (even a film about a Spider-Man villain that doesn't feature Spider-Man) and the massive goodwill that now-grown comic book fans have for Venom, a ‘90s bad-boy character whose popularity was perhaps only rivaled by Wolverine.
Speaking of ‘90s bad boys, Jonah Hill's directorial debut, Mid90s has also made an impact in its first week in (limited) release, earning high per-screen averages. The A24 indie drama is scheduled to show in more theaters this weekend.
Like Halloween, Mid90s is no doubt benefiting from a sense of nostalgia from audiences, although fewer people get stabbed in Hill's film.