‘Halloween’ Had the Biggest Opening Weekend in Slasher History

The new Halloween absolutely slaughtered its competition at the weekend box office — and pretty much every other slasher film in history. Move over, Freddy Krueger. Take a seat, Jason. Michael Myers is the new slasher box-office champ.

Bowing with an incredible $77.5 million gave the new Halloween — directed by David Gordon Green and featuring the franchise’s original star, Jamie Lee Curtis — the biggest opening weekend in the history of the slasher genre. (The previous champ was the 2009 reboot of Friday the 13th, which grossed $40.7 million in its first three days in theaters.)

Here’s the weekend’s full box-office chart:

	Film	Weekend	Per Screen	Total
1	Halloween	$77,501,000	$19,730	$77,501,000
2	A Star Is Born	$19,300,000 (-32%)	$4,969	$126,376,246
3	Venom	$18,105,000 (-48%)	$4,658	$171,125,095
4	Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween	$9,715,000 (-38%)	$2,759	$28,804,812
5	First Man	$8,565,000 (-46%)	$2,353	$29,999,050
6	The Hate U Give	$7,500,000 (+331%)	$3,257	$10,641,873
7	Smallfoot	$6,615,000 (-27%)	$2,182	$66,366,035
8	Night School	$5,000,000 (-35%)	$2,178	$66,906,825
9	Bad Times at the El Royale	$3,300,000 (-53%)	$1,175	$13.341,801
10	The Old Man & the Gun	$2,050,000 (+123%)	$2,556	$4,200,856

Halloween also had the second-biggest opening for any October film ever, behind Venom from just three weeks ago. And it was the second-biggest opening ever for an R-rated horror film of any kind — slasher, splatter, psychological horror, killer clowns, what have you — behind only the $123 million that It made last October.

When it comes to horror movies led by women, it broke a couple more records:

And here’s another record for you: It’s also the biggest opening weekend ever for its producers, the prolific and economical horror specialists at Blumhouse Productions. Speaking of economical: The new Halloween reportedly cost just $10 million to make, which means even after marketing costs, the movie is already close to turning a profit, if it hasn’t already. Clearly the gambit to wipe the franchise’s slate clean and return the series back to its roots — with Curtis once again squaring off with Michael Myers — was an idea that appealed to audiences. How long before Freddy and Jason follow suit?

Gallery - References to the Original Halloween in the New Film:

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