The movie exhibition business is closing out one of its slowest Octobers in over 25 years with a sluggish Halloween weekend. Studios avoided opening any major new films with the holiday falling on a Friday. Instead, there were several re-releases, including “Back to the Future,” which is celebrating its 40th anniversary, and the Netflix phenomenon “KPop Demon Hunters.”
Even with a top 10 in which no films earned more than $10 million, there was still a bit of excitement as two studios claimed the No. 1 spot on Sunday. Universal’s horror sequel “Black Phone 2” was largely expected to top the charts in its third weekend in theaters, with the studio reporting an estimated $8 million for the weekend.
About 30 minutes later, Paramount reported that its romantic drama “Regretting You” had earned an estimated $8.1 million, which would place it in the top spot instead. Box office tracker Comscore analyzed the numbers and awarded the No. 1 title to “Regretting You.” It’s important to note that Sunday numbers are based on estimates and projections, and sometimes Monday’s actual figures tell a different story.
“Regretting You” is the latest Colleen Hoover adaptation to open in theaters, following the runaway hit “It Ends With Us.” While “Regretting You” has a running domestic total of $27.5 million, it is not expected to match its predecessor’s impressive $50 million opening weekend.
Meanwhile, in three weekends, “Black Phone 2” has grossed $61.5 million domestically and $104.7 million globally. Universal also handled the nationwide re-release of Robert Zemeckis’s “Back to the Future,” which earned $4.7 million from 2,290 theaters, enough to secure fifth place on the North American charts. The 1985 time travel classic now boasts a domestic total of $221.7 million.
Though there were plenty of HUNTR/X costumes on the streets this weekend, “KPop Demon Hunters” didn’t perform as well as it did when it played in theaters in August. That weekend, the streaming hit sold between $16 million and $20 million in movie tickets. This weekend, it’s estimated to have earned around $5 million from 2,890 screens.
Two distribution executives, speaking on condition of anonymity due to Netflix’s policy of not reporting ticket sales, shared these numbers.
Sony Pictures and Crunchyroll’s “Chainsaw Man The Movie: Reze Arc” dropped a steep 67% in its second weekend and is projected to add $6 million from 3,003 locations, bringing its total to $30.8 million.
Focus Features also launched “Bugonia” into wide release after several weeks in limited release. With an estimated $4.8 million from 2,043 theaters, it marks filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos’s best wide opening to date. The darkly comedic thriller stars Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons and is expected to be an awards season contender.
“Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere” landed in sixth place, just behind “Back to the Future,” and saw a 57% drop in its second weekend. It earned $3.8 million, putting its domestic total at $16.3 million and its global tally at $30.6 million.
“This was a truly scary weekend,” said Paul Dergarabedian, Comscore’s head of marketplace trends. “It was this imperfect storm of Halloween on a Friday and the World Series on Friday and Saturday. But the studios and theaters knew this was on the horizon and they planned for it.”
The next two weekends may bring some energy back to multiplexes with releases like “Predator: Badlands” and “Now You See Me: Now You Don’t.” However, the industry will likely have to wait until closer to Thanksgiving for a real blockbuster when “Wicked: For Good” and “Zootopia 2” enter the mix.
“This was always going to be a tough weekend. The audience was truly fragmented,” Dergarabedian added. “There are weekends where the movie theaters are the focus of attention, and those are coming.”
https://www.bostonherald.com/2025/11/02/regretting-you-and-black-phone-2-neck-in-neck-on-slow-halloween-box-office-weekend/
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