Paramount is calling the second weekend of their feature take of Colleen Hoover novel Regretting You at an $8.1M No. 1 win over Universal/Blumhouse’s Black Phone 2 which is being called at $8M.
This death match between a movie about a mother and daughter in mourning, and that of a devil-faced kidnapper will come down to Sunday. Paramount is betting that young women bounce back today like they did post World Series Baseball last weekend.
The math on Regretting You is not working out this morning for several non-Paramount executives.
Note that rivals see Black Phone 2 winning the weekend over Regretting You, $8M to $7.2M. It’s expected that the Ethan Hawke Blumhouse movie will post a $2.1M Sunday while Regretting You does about $2.3M. Paramount is betting that Regretting You posts a $3.1M Sunday after its $1.25M Friday and $3.75M Saturday.
Most titles in the top 10 saw 100% surges or more between their Saturdays and a sleepy Friday; Paramount’s feature take of Colleen Hoover novel Regretting You posted the biggest jump of 213% between its $3.75M Saturday and $1.2M Friday.
Netflix’s Kpop Demon Hunters came in closer to the range we were seeing ahead of the weekend (which was $6M) with an estimated $5.3M after a $600K Friday and $2.74M Saturday for a $24.3M running cume. The streamer doesn’t report box office figures. But alas, sans any great marketing push, the Sony anime production wasn’t all that in its second go-round unlike its late August stunt play sans AMC. Again, this time around AMC decided to play Netflix’s most watched feature of all-time.
Bugonia, which cost a lot for a Yorgos Lanthimos movie at $45M, with a higher price for what Focus acquired it for, is coming in with the biggest opening for the offbeat filmmaker at $4.4M in its wide break from 17 to 2,043 theaters. The movie gets a B CinemaScore, an 80% positive and a 53% definite recommend in Screen Engine/Comscore PostTrak audience exits. Clearly the question raised will be, well, if we took out Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere last weekend, shouldn’t we take out Bugonia? They cost a similar amount, with Springsteen opening at $8.8M, and similar exits (Springsteen was B+). But they’re two different movies: One is aimed at a hipster arthouse crowd, the other at older fans of a rock icon who didn’t show up. If Bugonia can get to a $30M gross and $100M-plus global take, consider it a gross right in Lanthimos’ wheelhouse: his Oscar winners The Favourite did $34.3M domestic, $95.9M global, and Poor Things wound up with $34.5M domestic/$117.6M worldwide. Focus is playing the Conclave date of the calendar rather than taking Bugonia out over Thanksgiving or Christmas which is where Searchlight played his previous two awards contenders. Note, Bugonia‘s weekend alone amounts close to the entire domestic run of his previous Searchlight dud, Kinds of Kindness, which only grossed $5M domestic, and $16.4M global in June 2024.
Bugonia played best in the East and the West with 51% of its tickets sales from both coasts versus the 43% norm for all other titles in the marketplace. Male leaning at 61%. 63% in 18-34 (a demo which the specialty distributors should make more movies for). Diversity demos were 53% Caucasian, 24% Latino and Hispanic, 7% Black, 7% Asian American and 6% Native American. The Alamo DC 9 is the top grossing location for the Emma Stone-Jesse Plemmons pic with around $8K.
Briarcliff Entertainment has the animated kids spooky pic Stitch Head which did $350K yesterday for what’s looking like a $2.2M opening at 2,162. Best areas of play yesterday were South, Midwest and South Central, with standout markets being Chicago, Houston, and Atlanta. The Cinema 10 in Huntsville TX posted the best gross with $1K. Twenty-six reviews from critics amounted to a paltry 69% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.
If you were at the cinemas this weekend, you’d think the entertainment format was dead. But if you were at Universal Studios’ Hollywood Halloween Horror Nights, you’d see that the yield of the feature film business is in great shape with crowds waiting 2 hours to get into experiences such as Terrifier and Five Nights at Freddy’s. It’s just that no one wanted to go to the movies this weekend with Halloween falling on a Friday and the World Series Game 7 with an L.A. Dodgers win last night. Oh, Disney/20th Century Studios’ Predator: Badlands, save us next weekend! “The cavalry cannot get here soon enough” exclaims Comscore Senior Media Analyst Paul Dergarabedian in a note to press this AM about the tentpole product on deck for November and December course-correcting this awful October.
As far as the October doldrums, distribution sources believe that it’s not a bellwether, rather the solution lies in a steady supply of must-see theatrical events which audiences will show up for. That’s the only way to get back to pre-Covid levels. Remember, this October didn’t work because Tron: Ares did not, and Warner Bros moved their highly anticipated Mortal Kombat II to early May next summer. There was some counterprogramming hope around these adult prestige titles, i.e. Smashing Machine and Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere from a distance, but when they actually arrived, they couldn’t make a dent.
Comscore at the time of this post is still working through the numbers and figuring whether this is the lowest weekend at the box office YTD. Estimates this morning show $53.5M for all titles which would make the frame second lowest of 2025 behind, March 14-16 which hit bottom at $52.1M per Box Office Mojo. That’s when Paramount opened Novocaine to $8.8M.
- Regretting You (Par) 3,425 (+32) theaters, Fri $1.25M (-77%) Sat $3.75M Sun $3.1M 3-day $8.1M (-41%), Total $27.5M/Wk 2
- Black Phone 2 (Uni) 3,305 (-155) theaters, Fri $2.4M (-38%) Sat $3.4M Sun $2.1M 3-day $8M (-38%), Total $61.4M/Wk 3
- Chainsaw Man (Sony) 3,003 theaters, Fri $1.3M (-85%) Sat $2.66M Sun $2M 3-day $6M (-66%), total $30.7M/Wk 2
Imax brought in $500K for a 10-day total in the large format exhibitor’s auditoriums of $4.7M. - Kpop Demon Hunters (Netflix) 2,890 theaters, Fri $600K Sat $2.74M Sun $1.96M 3-day $5.3M (n/a), Total $24.3M/Wk 2
- Bugonia (Foc) 2,043 (+2,026) theaters, Fri $1.85M, Sat $1.74M Sun $1.2M 3-day $4.8M (+576%), Total $5.8M/Wk 2
- Back to the Future (re) 2,290 theaters, Fri $1.56M, Sat $1.9M Sun $1.24M 3-day $4.7M/Lifetime total $221.7M/Wk 1 reissue
Imax screens stateside delivered $1M of the gross. - Springsteen…(20th) 3,460 theaters, Fri $840K (-77%) Sat $1.75M Sun $1.2M 3-day $3.8M (-57%)/Total $16.2M/Wk 2
- Tron: Ares (Dis) 2,575 (-365) theaters, Fri $600K (-54%) Sat $1.4M Sun $800K 3-day $2.8M (-43%), Total $67.9M/Wk 4
- Stitch Head (Briar) 2,162 theaters, Fri $350K, Sat $985K Sun $765K 3-day $2.1M, Total $2.5M (opened on Wed)/Wk 1
- Good Fortune (LG) 2,150 (-840) theaters Fri $330K Sat $680K Sun $390K 3-day $1.4M (-55%) Total $14.6M/Wk 3
- One Battle After Another (WB) 904 (-569) theaters Fri $250K Sat $560K Sun $340K 3-day $1.15M (-49%) Total $67.7M/Wk 6
Noteable:
Baahubli: The Epic (Var) 448 theaters, Fri $484K, Sat $250K Sun $150K, 3-day $837K/Wk 1
From RRR filmmaker S.S. Rajamouli, this epic is billed as a “new vision of the two-film Baahubali series”, the second Baahubali still being the highest grossing Indian film of all time in North America. It’s remastered and edited into a single cinematic experience by Rajamouli at four hours plus intermission. First day shows on Wednesday had 160 PLF screens including Imax and Dolby with sell-outs in particular at AMC Lincoln Square NYC. Also solid play in Los Angeles, Dallas, Austin, Seattle, Atlanta, DC, Kansas City, San Francisco, Boston, Chicago and Cleveland.
Anniversary (RSA) 809 theaters, Fri $72K Sat $110K Sun $77K 3-day $259K, PTA $320, Total $344K /Wk 1
How Fathom’s release of Summit/Lionsgate’s Twilight series did over the last five days:
Twilight – Wed. $1.54M
Twilight: New Moon Thur $590K
Twilight: Eclipse – Fri $303K
Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 1 – Sat $504,7K
Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 2 – Sun $590K