‘Black Phone 2’ Leads Lowest Box Office Weekend YTD, ‘KPop Demon Hunters’ Not Poppin’ – Saturday AM Update

UPDATE SATURDAY AM: Refresh for more analysis and chart…The lowest October in 27 years is coming to a close with the lowest weekend of the year at around $49M no thanks to Halloween falling on a Friday, but the horror doesn’t stop there: Anyone expected a boost for business on Saturday has to deal with the final World Series game between LA Dodgers and the Toronto Blue Jays.

Comscore reported earlier this week that October was coming in at $440M which is the lowest October has ever been since 1998 which did $455.5M. The biggest October ever belongs to 2018 which did $832.8M — there were three tentpoles that month with Venom, A Star Is Born and Halloween which combined did some $481M for the month alone. Last October brought in $478M, this past month being -8% off from that. The biggest October post pandemic belongs to 2021, when moviegoers were coming back from Covid, and the month was stacked with Dune, No Time to Die, and Venom 2, that frame amounting to $645M.

Universal/Blumhouse’s the third weekend of Black Phone 2 is leading with $7.6M still, -41%, for a running cume of $61M. The scary movie led all titles on Halloween with $2.4M while Focus Features’ Bugonia was second with $1.8M.

Meanwhile per industry estimates, because Netflix doesn’t report, Kpop Demon Hunters at 2,890 theaters grossed $600K yesterday for what’s shaping up to be a $3.4M second three-day weekend. As one distribution source predicted about the most watched Netflix title coming back to cinemas: “I don’t think there’s more juice left in that squeeze.”

Bugonia, which cost a lot for a Yorgos Lanthimos movie at $45M, with a higher price for what Focus acquired it for, is coming in with the biggest opening for the offbeat filmmaker at $4.4M in its wide break from 17 to 2,043 theaters. The movie gets a B CinemaScore, an 80% positive and a 53% definite recommend in Screen Engine/Comscore PostTrak audience exits. Clearly the question raised will be, well, if took out Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere, shouldn’t we take out Bugonia? They cost a similar amount, with Springsteen opening at $8.8M, and had similar exits (Springsteen was B+). Two different movies: One is aimed at a hipster crowd, the other at older men who didn’t show up. If Bugonia can get to a $30M gross and $100M-plus global take, consider it a gross right in Lanthimos’ wheelhouse: his Oscar winners The Favourite did $34.3M domestic, $95.9M global and Poor Things wound up with $34.5M domestic/$117.6M worldwide. Focus is playing the Conclave date of the calendar rather than taking Bugonia out over Thanksgiving or Christmas which is where Searchlight played his previous two awards contenders. Note, Bugonia‘s weekend alone amounts close to the entire domestic run of his previous Searchlight dud, Kinds of Kindness which only grossed $5M domestic, and $16.4M global in June 2024.

Bugonia played best in the East and the West with 51% of its tickets sales from both coasts versus the 43% norm for all other titles in the marketplace. Male leaning at 61%. Sixty-three 18-34 (a demo which the specialty distributors should make more movies for). Diversity demos were 53% Caucasian, 24% Latino and Hispanic, 7% Black, 7% Asian American and 6% Native American. The Alamo DC 9 is the top grossing location for the Emma Stone-Jesse Plemmons pic with around $8K.

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PREVIOUS FRIDAY MIDDAY: In a weak box office weekend with Halloween festivities stealing audiences away today, Universal/Blumhouse’s Black Phone 2 will pop back up to No. 1 in its third frame with a $7.6 million take, down 41% from last weekend for a running cume of $61M.

As we told you earlier, the last time Halloween fell on a Friday was 2014, and a Universal/Blumhouse horror movie ruled then: the second weekend of Ouija, with $10.7M. That title led Halloween Friday with a $3.4M take and then popped by 47% on Saturday with $5M. So goes the hope for all distributors that business comes roaring back on Saturday, but it’s not expected to be anything to brag about.

The midday charts right now show a toss-up for the overall weekend for No. 2 between Paramount’s feature take on Colleen Hoover’s Regretting You and Sony/Crunchyroll’s Chainsaw Man, both estimated around $4.8M. For Chainsaw Man, that’s a 73% decline for a running cume of $29.5M. For Regretting You, that reps a 65% decline from its $13.68M opening for a running cume of $24.1M.

However, Netflix’s second go-round of KPop Demon Hunters could upset them both with a $5M+ take, that number not made official in midday forecasts. While the movie posted a two-day $19M No. 1 finish back in August in a wide release sans No. 1 chain AMC Theatres, this time around the Kansas-based circuit will be playing the Sony anime production along with Regal and Cinemark.

Bugonia, Focus Features’ wide break of Yorgos Lanthimos’ fifth collaboration with Emma Stone, is eyeing a $4M second weekend after jumping from 17 theaters in NY/LA/Austin last weekend to 2,043. That’s the biggest wide weekend ever for the Oscar-winning Greek filmmaker, his previous high being the eighth weekend of Poor Things, which cleared $2.9M in 2023. The new pic’s second Friday of $1.7M includes $700,000 in previews from 1,700 theaters.

Note that preview figure is ahead of Conclave‘s Thursday previews of $500K a year ago, which posted a $6.6M opening at 1,753 theaters, And it’s not far from Wes Anderson’s The Phoenician Scheme, whose wide-break Thursday previews did $850K during the summer; that wide weekend — its second frame — posted $6.27M at 1,678. There is hope for the long haul on Bugonia based on its 87% with critics and 89% with audiences on Rotten Tomatoes. Lanthimos’ Oscar-winning Poor Things was 92% certified fresh with critics and 80% with audiences, while his other Academy Award-winning The Favourite was 93% certified fresh and 71% with audiences in 2018.

Universal’s re-release of Robert Zemeckis’ Back to the Future at 2,290, with the boost of Imax, is looking at a Friday of $1.55M, which includes $650K previews from last night in what’s shaping up to be a $3.8M three-day total. This is the 40th anniversary reissue of the blockbuster starring Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd. By comparison, Uni’s re-release of Jaws for its 50th anniversary posted a three-day of $8.2M over Labor Day weekend.

Disney is hoping for a $4M+ second weekend on Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere, but rivals see the Jeremy Allen White-led pic lower. At that level, it’s a 55% decline with a $16.4M running cume by EOD Sunday.

After making $1.55M with the reissue of 2008’s Twilight, Fathom Entertainment’s re-release of that pic’s 2009 sequel The Twilight Saga: New Moon did $590K at 1,504 theaters Thursday night. The Twilight Saga: Eclipse plays today, followed by Breaking Dawn Part 1 on Saturday and Breaking Dawn Part 2 on Sunday. The re-release of the Summit/Lionsgate franchise is in celebration of the novel’s 20th anniversary.