Halloween keeps breaking records. Venom crossed the $500 million mark worldwide, with revenues from China and Japan still to be counted. Add A Star Is Born, with Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga showing more legs than expected and it looks like this month will help make 2018 the best Box Office year ever, with final revenues projected to land somewhere between $11.6 and $12 billion.
So much for the rule that you can only make money by releasing a film during the summer or the Holidays. And so much for all the experts that had predicted that the communal experience of seeing a film in a dark theater, laughing and crying with strangers, was a thing of the past. Add a solid $30 billion from foreign markets and we can safely say that the reports about the imminent death of movie theaters have been greatly exaggerated.
Back to the numbers of this past week, Halloween – Blumhouse Productions latest monster success – stayed atop the worldwide chart. Domestically, it generated $32 million, for a total of $126.7 million. Internationally, it added $25.6 million, for $172.3 million globally. Halloween, with Jamie Lee Curtis back in the iconic role of Laurie Straude, added 39 markets, including Germany, Italy, and Brazil. And was No.1 in all of those markets.
A Star Is Born kept the No.2 spot domestically, adding $14.1 million for a gross so far of $149 million. It also kept that spot internationally, snatching it away from Venom. A Star is Born crossed the $100 million mark, adding $17.6 million. It had an international drop of just 26%.
Sony’s Venom was right behind, adding $10.8 million domestically and $17.3 million overseas. The Tom Hardy superhero film based on a Marvel property is now in 65 markets, led by Russia with $30.3 million, Korea with $29.7 and the U.K. with $24 million. Venom is set to open in China this week, in Japan the following one. And is now projected to end its run in the $650 million range.
Hunter Killer, a submarine action film starring Gerard Butler, Gary Oldman, and Common, had a modest debut of $6.7 million domestically. A few foreign territories added $3.2 million. Things look pretty good for Bohemian Rhapsody. It opened just in the U.K., following a spectacular premiere at Wembley Stadium, where it generated $12.2 million. Next week, the Queen biopic starring Rami Malek as Freddy Mercury lands in the U.S. and in 64 other international markets including Russia, Korea, Germany and Mexico
On the specialty films front, Luca Guadagnino had last year’s best per-theater average opening with Call Me By Your Name. He repeated himself again with Suspiria, that grossed $179,800 out of just two theaters in N.Y. and Los Angeles. Suspiria, based on the 1977 horror classic directed by Dario Argento, stars Tilda Swinton, Dakota Johnson, and Chloë Grace Moretz. Can You Ever Forgive Me? with Melissa McCarthy in a dramatic role, expanded to 25 theaters and grossed $380,0000. Jonah Hill’s Mid90s expanded to 1,200 theaters in its second outing and grossed $3 million. Beautiful Boy, starring Steve Carell and Timothée Chalamet, expanded to 190 theaters in its third weekend, grossing close to $600,000.
