Blumhouse and Universal’s Black Phone 2 was slightly bigger at $26.5M after a Saturday ease of -13% with $9.6M off Friday/previews $11M. Blumhouse bounces back with a solid sequel to a beloved fan original with no overpriced gimmicks ala M3GAN 2.0. Finally, a year where every other studio has rallied in some form or shape with horror, Blumhouse rightly gets its due. Comscore reports that YTD horror movies have scared up $1.2 billion at the domestic B.O., besting 2017’s record $1.16 billion. Now, onward to Five Nights at Freddy’s 2.

Said Universal Domestic Distribution Chief Jim Orr this AM, “Visionary filmmaker Scott Derrickson and our partners, the masters of horror at Blumhouse, have once again crafted a haunting triumph that captivated audiences this weekend. This chilling sequel starring Ethan Hawke and Mason Thames is leaving moviegoers everywhere thrilled and terrified in the best possible way.”

Black Phone 2 was slightly more male than the original, 53% to 49%, with the over 25 demographic remaining the same at 53%.

Latino and Hispanic moviegoers were bigger this time around at 39% versus 32% for Black Phone. The sequel also scored its biggest definite recommend with Latino/Hispanic moviegoers at 75%, as well as Native American (78%) versus Caucasian (56%), Black (62%), Asian American (55%). In reaching Latino and Hispanic potential audiences, there were spots in Liga MX and Spanish language radio stations, integrated into Premios Juventud, as well as featurettes with castmembers Miguel Mora and Demián Bichir. Mora hosted a content creator screening that reached 2.5 million viewers with a TikTok post recapping his experience.

Definite recommend at 66% with overall audiences is a point higher than Black Phone.

Updated regional ticket sales show Black Phone 2 over-performing in the West Coast, South Central and Midwest. Top ten markets were Los Angeles, NYC, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Atlanta and DC.

iSpot shows a $7.2M linear spend by Uni for Black Phone 2, which reached 422M impressions with spots during NFL games, College Football, MLB, Top Chef VIP and Chicago P.D. There were also spots on WNBA, Big 10, SEC, Premier League, WWE Smackdown, UFC and Saturday Night Live, Chicago Fire, Law & Order: SVU, Survivor, Murder in a Small Town, 9-1-1 Nashville and Hell’s Kitchen.

The campaign for Black Phone 2 launched on May 30 with the help of content creators and press who received sinister texts from an unknown Colorado-based number along with five atmospheric teasers for the film that formed an ominous warning: “Dead Is Just A Word.” The following day, Jason Blum appeared at CCXP Mexico to unveil the film’s teaser trailer, which also hit YouTube.

On Sept. 4, there was a second round of mysterious texts which asked, “What do you think happens when you die?” and was quickly followed by the release of the film’s second trailer, which reached one of the year’s biggest streaming audiences with a spot in YouTube’s first-ever NFL game. The trailers for The Black Phone 2 (which count a reach of 336M views) have played in theaters ahead of such horror movies like 28 Years Later, I Know What You Did Last Summer, Weapons and The Conjuring: Last Rites.

The Black Phone 2 world premiered at Fantastic Fest on Sept. 20. Horror creators Sam and Colby made a custom video that was timed to the screening, which reached 3M followers and clocked 1.5M views to date. On Sept. 30, Black Phone 2 co-hosted TikTok’s Halloween event, where creators and cast wandered through immersive sets from the film, braved a ringing phone booth and came face to face with the Grabber.

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Custom content came out of that event hitting 1.4M viewers and timed to tickets going on sale with digital takeovers reaching 120M, including sponsorships of Halloween programming such as Huluween and Terror on Tubi, high-impact placements across Spotify, Snapchat, YouTube and Dead Meat, and a TikTok surround of Taylor Swift content. Black Phone 2 also took over horror streaming service Shudder’s connected TV, desktop and mobile platforms from Sept. 19 through Halloween, a reach of 3.5M users.

There was also a Discord mini-game that invited users to solve a themed team mystery challenge, and introduced a custom modification of the online game R.E.P.O.

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Black Phone 2, in an extra boost, was part of Universal Studios and Halloween Horror Nights with an integration into the latter’s Terror Tram.

Lionsgate’s Good Fortune with $6.25M is in the range we were seeing, but still low for the Aziz Ansari-directed and starring body swap/angels comedy. iSpot reports a $2.5M linear spend by Lionsgate for the Keanu Reeves-Seth Rogen movie that yielded 111M impressions with ads running across NFL, College Football, MLB and MLB Tonight.

Disney’s Tron: Ares is at $103M global for ten-days — which is not a great two-weekend running cume for this attempt to reboot the franchise. Domestic took a big fall at -67% or $11.1M which is a cliff next to Blade Runner 2049‘s second weekend decline of -53% or $15.4M. Running U.S/Canada total is $54.5M. Imax delivered $4.5M global to Tron: Ares ($2.2M of that from 409 domestic auditoriums). The running worldwide Imax cume for the Joachim Rønning-directed movie is $17.6M.

Warner Bros’ One Battle After Another has a global haul of $162.5M, after a fourth worldwide weekend of $15.8M. The movie’s continued running tally is ahead of the final global take of Leonardo DiCaprio’s last movie, Killers of the Flower Moon ($158.7M).

Comscore also says that while the 2025 box office hovers 2024 by some 4%, October is lagging with $288M, -11% versus the same comparable frame a year ago ($322M).

 

 

via Deadline