Movie fans hoping to see something new on Halloween weekend were in for a rude awakening. The major movie studios decided not to open any new films this past weekend and, as a result, the top 10 at the domestic box office was historically bad and also incredibly weird.
Let’s run down some of the oddities. First up is that nothing made over $10 million. As of Sunday, two movies—Black Phone 2 and Regretting You—were battling for the top spot, but each only grossed about $8 million in their third and second weeks, respectively. Black Phone 2 was basically the only major horror movie playing in most theaters, which, considering it was Halloween weekend, sure feels like a ringing endorsement to stay home and stream.
Beyond the top two, things got even more curious. Three animated films take up a few of the next spots, including last week’s #1 film, Chainsaw Man: The Movie. That was at #3. At #4 was Netflix’s re-release of KPop Demon Hunters. A film that, a few weeks back, shattered all box office expectations, grossing around $18 million. This weekend, it played at AMC Theaters, which it hadn’t back in August, but only grossed a little over $5 million. Not bad for a movie that fans could watch at home for free, but still, surely lower than expectations.
The third animated film on the list was Stitch Head, a film most of us probably haven’t even heard of. The not-as-well-promoted Briarcliffe Entertainment release came in at #9 for the weekend, grossing a little over $2 million. That feels like a win.
Most of the other spots on the top ten were occupied by more traditional Hollywood fare. The wide release of the excellent Bugonia was at #5, grossing just under $5 million; the Bruce Springsteen biopic Deliver Me From Nowhere was #7; the Keanu Reeves and Seth Rogen comedy Good Fortune was #7; and, still hanging on, Tron: Ares was at #8.
That’s nine titles. What was the 10th? None other than the anniversary re-release of Back to the Future, which grossed $4.7 million, slotting it in at #6. And when a 40-year-old movie can gross more than half of what the #1 movie of the weekend did, that’s strange.
Of course, many factors played into this, such as Halloween coming on a Friday, a major sporting event keeping people home, etc. But even so, it was a weekend for the ages, and not in a good way. No new releases, only one live-action horror movie, three animated films (one of which was a streaming title), and a 40-year-old classic in the top 10. For comparison, last year, Venom 3 was released around Halloween and on its second weekend grossed almost $26 million on its own, with both Smile 2 and Terrifier 3 still in theaters for horror fans.
In the end, Halloween weekend was the lowest-grossing weekend of 2025 so far (a title it’s sure to hold for another two months) and capped the worst October at the box office since 1997 (excluding 2020, of course). We’d imagine theaters are desperate for the new big films to come rolling in, and that they do. Next up, Predator: Badlands, The Running Man, and Wicked: For Good.
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