Halloween just had the second-best horror opening weekend of all time


Michael Myers finally came home this weekend, and it looks like he's here to stay.
Halloween, the new revival of the iconic horror franchise which sees Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) returning to face down Michael Myers 40 years after the events of the original classic, opened to a massive $77.5 million this weekend, per Box Office Mojo. This is the second-best debut for a horror film of all time behind only 2017's It, which made $123 million in its opening weekend. It's also by far the best opening ever for the long-running slasher series; the franchise's previous best was with Rob Zombie's 2007 remake, which made $26 million in its opening weekend, or the equivalent of $31 million today.
Halloween came just a few million dollars short of besting Venom's two-week-old record for best October opening, but it didn't quite reach the $80.3 million necessary to do so. Still, Blumhouse will clearly be thrilled with the performance of Halloween, as this is the horror studio's best opening weekend yet, besting the $52 million it made with the debut of Paranormal Activity 3 in 2011. Halloween reportedly only cost $10 million, meaning it brought in nearly eight times its budget just in the first few days of release.
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Clearly this means the franchise will continue, and producer Jason Blum had confirmed the studio hoped to make a sequel assuming Halloween performed well, Entertainment Weekly reported. The new film's co-writer, Danny McBride, has also said he has ideas for where the story can go next. Based on how quickly Blumhouse has produced follow-ups in the past, don't be surprised to see the franchise's killing spree continue as soon as next Halloween.
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Brendan worked as a culture writer at The Week from 2018 to 2023, covering the entertainment industry, including film reviews, television recaps, awards season, the box office, major movie franchises and Hollywood gossip. He has written about film and television for outlets including Bloody Disgusting, Showbiz Cheat Sheet, Heavy and The Celebrity Cafe.
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