Directed by David Gordon Green, Halloween Kills, the sequel to the 2018 slasher film Halloween, has made its debut with a spectacular $50.4 million on its opening weekend. After a harrowing summer for theaters and blockbuster movies, the resurgence has been continued by the slasher flick after the considerable success of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, No Time To Die, and Venom: Let There Be Carnage. Despite being released simultaneously on theaters and Peacock, the streaming division of NBCUniversal, Halloween Kills has brought back the charm of the cinematic experience with its thundering opening week collections. While movies like Space Jam: A New Legacy and The Suicide Squad did not perform well at the box-office considering their simultaneous release on HBO Max, the slasher thriller has revamped the landscape with fall resurgence.
Related: New Featurette Spotlights the Warrior Women of “Halloween Kills”
Produced by Blumhouse Productions and distributed by Universal Pictures, Halloween Kills has now the highest opening weekend collections for a movie that is simultaneously released on theaters and a streaming platform, leaving behind the summer blockbuster Godzilla vs Kong that earned $31.6 million on its opening weekend debut. Jim Orr, Universal Pictures’ domestic distribution president has shared his thoughts behind the unprecedented success of Halloween Kills‘ opening weekend collections.
“This genre and this particular franchise lends itself to the in-theater experience. People want to be scared together. Our core audience was eager and enthusiastic.”
Unfortunately, on the other hand, Ridley Scott’s 14th-century historical epic The Last Duel has been a box-office failure despite garnering good reviews from critics. Starring Adam Driver, Jodie Comer, Matt Damon, and Ben Affleck, The Last Duel has so far collected a meager $9 million against a budget of $100 million. Despite re-uniting the Academy Award-winning screenplay duo Affleck and Damon alongside Nicole Holofcener, the movie has failed to lure its primary demography to the theaters as the threat of the pandemic is still quite prevalent, especially among the older generation. Moreover, the release of tentpole blockbusters like No Time To Die and Venom: Let There Be Carnage, dampened the chances of any considerable box-office collections for The Last Duel which has a run-time of 153 minutes with a controversial scene of Affleck and Damon kissing that was cut from the final cut.
After a successful opening weekend, No Time To Die, the final James Bond installment starring Daniel Craig, has slumped to a 56% drop after having earned $24.3 million in its second weekend of release which is following a similar pattern of previous movies like Skyfall and Spectre. Despite its impressive box-office collections during the pandemic era, No Time To Die will have a hard time raking profits considering that the movie was green-lit prior to the pandemic with a massive budget of nearly $300 million.
Related: No Time To Die: Every Character Death (Warning: Spoilers!)
While the box-office collections of this pandemic era have to go a long way to catch up with the humongous collections of major blockbuster movies that easily crossed the $1 billion mark in a matter of weeks, the resurgence of theaters is a good sign that will be further tested with upcoming blockbusters like Dune, The Matrix Resurrections, and Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story in the coming weeks.
