October’s big horror movie, Black Phone 2, has opened strong for Blumhouse, and took home #1 at the box office.
Per Deadline, the sequel to Universal’s 2022 horror hit made $42 million worldwide, with $26.5 million of it coming from North America. Both takes are slightly above the respective $23.3 million (domestic) and $35.8 million (global) of its predecessor’s start, and give Blumhouse a much-needed win after its earlier horror flicks in 2025 like M3GAN 2.0 and Wolf Man underperformed.
Directed again by Scott Derrickson and starring much of the first film’s cast—Ethan Hawke, Mason Thames, Madeleine McGraw, and Miguel Cazarez Mora—Black Phone 2 sees Hawke’s child-abducting Grabber dead, but terrorizing the kids who defeated him via another black phone stationed at a kids camp. The first movie was based off a short story by Joe Hill, but the story for this one is wholly original, and reception to this sequel has been generally positive.
Meanwhile, Tron: Ares fell 65% in North America, adding another $11.1 million for a new domestic total of $54.6 million. Disney’s legacy threequel didn’t fare much better internationally; it earned another $14.1 million, but did not land at all with Chinese audiences in its debut weekend. With its new $103 million global total, it’s looking likely that the series won’t have much of a future going forward. As for Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein, Netflix hasn’t shared any box office numbers yet, but that tune may change as its limited (and slightly confusing) release expands to other theaters next weekend.
Speaking of “next weekend,” we’ve got Yorgos Lanthimos’ comedy flick Bugonia, Tina Romero’s Queens of the Dead, and Chris Stuckmann’s horror debut Shelby Oaks all hitting theaters on October 24. Halloween weekend doesn’t have any genre films, but November 7 has Predator: Badlands.
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