Horror did what horror does in October: win. Universal and Blumhouse’s Black Phone 2 dialed up an estimated $26.5M to top the weekend, reminding exhibitors that when the pre-Halloween box office turns chilly, jump scares still warm the turnstiles.
Add Disney’s Tron: Ares with $11.1M in its sophomore frame and Lionsgate’s Aziz Ansari ensemble Good Fortune opening to $6.2M, and the North American weekend totaled $67.4M, virtually flat with the comparable frame last year ($68.8M, led then by Smile 2 at $23M).
Why it Worked
Like the 2022 original (which opened to $23.6M and legged it to $90.1M domestic/$161.4M worldwide), Black Phone 2 kept the price point lean (about $20M production) and the chills specific: director Scott Derrickson returns with co-writer C. Robert Cargill and the core cast (Mason Thames, Madeleine McGraw, Jeremy Davies, Ethan Hawke), shifting the sequel’s menace to 1982 and leaning into the Grabber’s reach beyond the grave.
Smartly, Derrickson swaps sun-baked suburbia for a snowbound isolation play, nearly all of it practical winter, giving the follow-up its own texture. Critics landed at 75% on Rotten Tomatoes, audiences at 85%. With $26.5M domestic plus early overseas of roughly $15.5M, the film should clear its theatrical breakeven (≈$50M worldwide) inside 10 days and become October’s genre standard-bearer.
The Runners-Up
Tron: Ares stumbled 66% to $11.1M, for $54.6M domestic and $103M worldwide after 10 days. That’s tracking at ~61% of Tron: Legacy at the same point (and that’s before inflation), suggesting the October slot sapped some four-quadrant energy that a summer berth might have captured. With a reported $180M budget, profitability looks like a long shot without exceptional holds overseas.
Good Fortune bowed in third with $6.2M. The supernatural body-swap comedy,Aziz Ansari writes/directs/stars opposite Keanu Reeves, Seth Rogen, Keke Palmer and Sandra Oh, earned 77% critics/75% audience on RT.
At an efficient $30M production, it will need sticky word of mouth and strong international to sniff theatrical profit (roughly $75M global needed). The TIFF premiere gave it cred; the question is legs.
The Steadies
One Battle After Another (Warner Bros.) added $4.0M in week four ($61.9M domestic/$162.5M worldwide). Expect a soft landing near $75M domestic and $200M global, with awards-season oxygen likely to extend its second life on streaming more than in theaters.
Roofman (Paramount) slipped 54% to $3.7M, reaching $15.5M domestic after 10 days. It’s slightly ahead of comp Logan Lucky at the same point; international will decide whether it clears the ≈$45M worldwide profitability bar (the Soderbergh caper drew 43% of its total overseas).
Market Notes
- Seasonal reality check: Pre-Halloween is perennially soft outside of horror. Expect attendance to remain sluggish until early November when Disney/20th’s Predator: Badlands hunts into multiplexes (Nov. 7).
- Streamers are also playing the spooky season: couch-friendly fright is surging, siphoning some casual moviegoers who might otherwise sample mid-tier theatrical titles.
- Netflix is giving KPOP: Demon Hunters a theatrical encore over Halloween weekend after its late-August run delivered $19M; this time AMC (≈400 sites) is in after sitting out the first window, setting up a likely exhibitor share-lead (plus a welcome concessions lift).
- Advance sales heat check: Fandango reports first-day tickets for Universal’s Wicked: For Good set a new 2025 record, a rosy signal for the year’s remaining tentpoles.
The Reel 360 Take
October belongs to Blumhouse again. Black Phone 2 shows the power of calibrated sequel design: familiar icon, new rules, disciplined budget. Meanwhile, Tron: Ares illustrates the stakes of release-date calculus; event-sci-fi needs a seasonal tailwind that October rarely provides.
With Halloween days away and prestige season loading, the playbook is clear, let horror eat now, then make way for emerald witches, predators, and awards bait to close out Q4.
Lexi Carson covers the buzziest campaigns, brand beefs, and streaming shake-ups. She’s known for her razor-sharp takes, obsession with 90s ad jingles, and a red bob that’s never once missed a deadline.
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