Michael Myers Kills The Competition As ‘Halloween’ Earns Massive $77.5 Million Opening Weekend

Michael Myers is back, and 40 years after the John Carpenter classic hit theaters, David Gordon Green’s “Halloween” not only ruled the weekend but already is the highest grossing film in the series after only three days.

According to estimates, “Halloween” debuted at #1, quite easily, with a massive $77.5 million in its first frame. To say this is a big opening is a complete understatement. Put in perspective, a $77.5 million opening is good for the second-best October debut in history (only $3 million behind the recent debut of “Venom,” which means that when actual totals arrive tomorrow, there’s a possibility that could change). The number is also the second largest opening for a horror film in history, only trailing the incredible debut of “IT.” And as for R-rated openings, this new Michael Myers flick had the 10th best opening of all time. “Halloween” also becomes the biggest Blumhouse Productions opening of all-time, besting the $52.5 million that “Paranormal Activity 3” put up). And to really put a button in it, keep in mind “Halloween” only sports reported budget of $10 million.

READ MORE: ‘Halloween’: Rejoice! This Brutal Horror Remake Is Killer [TIFF Review]

Internationally, the film pulled in a decent $14.3 million, bringing “Halloween’s” total weekend to right under $92 million. So, it’s a safe bet that Blumhouse is going to expedite a sequel. The real question is if Green, Danny McBride, and Jeff Fradley will come back to try to replicate the success.

Speaking of success, “A Star is Born” continues to cruise along, actually beating “Venom” for the first time, as the Bradley Cooper film pulled in $19.3 million for a #2 showing. To date, the film has a domestic total of $126 million and eclipsed another milestone with $201 million worldwide. Honestly, ‘Star’ probably has another big weekend in it before any real competition shows up. Looking at the release schedule, “Bohemian Rhapsody” could steal some of the musical thunder from Lady Gaga and Cooper when it hits theaters November 2.

While “Venom” dropped down to #3 this weekend, Sony has nothing to complain about. The Spider-Man spin-off superhero story (minus any actual Spider-Man appearance) keeps chugging along and doesn’t look to be slowing down. “Venom” earned $18 million domestically this weekend and another $32 million overseas. That leaves the superhero film with a very respectable $461 million after only three weekends. So, as we keep saying, despite really, really bad reviews, audiences just can’t get enough of Tom Hardy and his parasite…err, symbiote.

READ MORE: John Carpenter Nixed An Early Idea For The New ‘Halloween’ To Alter The Original Film’s Ending & Kill Dr. Loomis

“The Hate U Give” didn’t debut this weekend, but after putting up a couple really great limited weekend frames, the drama expanded wide and hit #6 with a weekend total of $7.5 million. That gives the film a $10.6 million total, as it looks like the film will continue to build momentum in the coming weeks. The same can’t be said for “First Man.” While Universal played down the weak opening last weekend, the Damien Chazelle film dropped a lot more than people were anticipating, and only earned $8.6 million in its second weekend. That means the Neil Armstrong biopic has earned just under $30 million in 10 days, and is still well short of profitability as more awards contender films debut in the coming weeks.

Speaking of those awards contenders, this weekend saw the limited debuts of a few different highly-anticipated films, each doing pretty well. But before we get to those, we have to talk about the wide-expansion of Jacques Audiard’s “The Sisters Brothers.” After slowly rolling out since the end of September, the John C. Reilly and Joaquin Phoenix Western finally expanded to 1,141 theaters but failed to impress. Even in the recent weeks, the film never connected with audiences in its limited run, and that trend continued with a $742,014 weekend (good for $650 per theater). Sadly, even with incredible reviews, the Audiard film just can’t seem to find success.

READ MORE: Relive Audience Reactions 40 Years Ago To John Carpenter’s ‘Halloween’ In Incredible Video

The three limited debuts, on the other hand, did pretty well with their small opening runs. Jonah Hill’s “mid90s” scored a per theater average of $62,375 (third best all year) in only 4 theaters. The Melissa McCarthy dramedy “Can You Ever Forgive Me?” and Paul Dano’s directorial debut, “Wildlife,” were both successful in their limited openings with $30,000 and $26,404 per theater, respectively. Each of these three films looks to expand in the coming weeks and continue this success as awards season kicks into full gear.

Next weekend is setting itself up for another “Halloween” dominating performance, as the only major debut is Gerard Butler’s “Hunter Killer” submarine film. You probably haven’t heard anything about it, as there’s almost no buzz for this action film. However, keep an eye on Luca Guadagnino’s “Suspiria,” which opens in limited release and is one of the fall’s most anticipated films. We could be looking at another massive per theater average for 2018.

Here’s the entire top 10 for October 19 to 21:

1. Halloween — $77.5M (Debut)
2. A Star is Born —$19.3M ($126M Overall)
3. Venom — $18M ($171M)
4. Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween — $9.7M ($29M)
5. First Man — $8.6M ($30M)
6. The Hate U Give — $7.5M ($10.6M)
7. Smallfoot — $6.6M ($66M)
8. Night School — $5M ($67M)
9. Bad Times at the El Royale — $3.3M ($13M)
10. The Old Man & the Gun — $2M ($4.2M)