‘Regretting You’ and ‘Black Phone 2’ neck-in-neck on slow Halloween box office weekend

This image released by Paramount Pictures shows Mason Thames, left, and McKenna Grace in a scene from "Regretting You."

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.”

But 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 Sunday.

Universal’s horror sequel “Black Phone 2” was largely expected to top the charts in its third weekend in theaters, and the studio reported that it was going to be in first place with an estimated $8 million.

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 went by the numbers and gave the first place title to “Regretting You.” Sunday numbers are based on estimates and projections, however, and sometimes Monday actuals tell a different story.

“Regretting You” is the latest Colleen Hoover adaptation to open in theaters since “It Ends With Us” became a runaway hit in theaters. With a running domestic total of $27.5 million, this newest film is not going to match its predecessor, which made $50 million its first weekend.

In three weekends “Black Phone 2” has made $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 snag a fifth-place spot on the North American charts. The 1985 time travel classic now has 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 do as well as it did when it played in theaters in August.

That weekend, the streaming hit sold between $16 and $20 million in movie tickets. This weekend, it’s estimated to have earned somewhere in the $5 million range from 2,890 screens. Two distribution executives shared numbers on the condition of anonymity because Netflix has a policy of not reporting ticket sales.

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. With an estimated $4.8 million from 2,043 theaters, it marks filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos’s best wide break to date. The darkly comedic thriller stars Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons and is expected to be an awards season player.

“Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere” landed in sixth place, behind “Back to the Future,” and down 57% 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 weekend may net out to be one of the lowest grossing of the year, closing out an unusually slow October. With the exception of October 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, the month’s total ticket sales ($443 million) have not been this low since 1998 ($455.5 million).

The next two weekends may bring some energy back to multiplexes, however, with releases like “Predator: Badlands” and “Now You See Me: Now You Don’t,” but 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 said. “There are weekends where the movie theaters are the focus of the attention, and those are coming.”

Top 10 movies by domestic box office

With final domestic figures being released Monday, this list factors in the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore:

1.“Regretting You,” $8.1 million.

2.“Black Phone 2,” $8 million.

3.“Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc,” $6 million.

4.“Bugonia,” $4.8 million.

5.“Back to the Future,” $4.7 million.

6.“Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere,” $3.8 million.

7.“Tron: Ares,” $2.8 million.

8.“Stitch Head,” $2.1 million.

9.“Good Fortune,” $1.4 million.

10.“One Battle After Another,” $1.2 million.

Lindsey Bahr, The Associated Press