Box Office Meltdown: ‘Regretting You’ Tops Worst Halloween Weekend in 31 Years With $8.1 Million - The Hollywood Reporter

On Sunday, Paramount boldly proclaimed that Regretting You — the second Colleen Hoover book adaptation to hit the big screen after It Ends With Us — was the victor of this year’s Halloween box office contest with $8.1 million from 3,245 cinemas in its sophomore outing.

Universal likewise estimated a first-place finish for Blumhouse’s Black Phone 2 with $8 million from 3,425 cinemas. Most rival studios also showed the horror sequel, now in its third weekend, coming in ahead of Regretting You.

Paramount had good reason to be bullish. The prior weekend, Regretting You did switch positions with Black Phone and come in at No. 1 when Monday actuals tallied. This time, though, Paramount missed the mark. According to final numbers, Regretting You grossed $7.8 million, while Black Phone 2 came in at $8.3 million.

Generally in such situations, a studio in Universal’s position would have called the contest a tie on Sunday, but in this case, no one complained, considering overall ticket sales for the weekend came in at $52.4 million — the worst showing of the year to date.

But that’s not the most frightening fact — it was the lowest-grossing Halloween weekend in 31 years, according to Comscore. This excludes 2020, when the COVID-19 crisis forced theater closures for months.

The last time Halloween weekend revenue came in lower was in 1993, when combined ticket sales reached $49.2 million, and that’s not adjusted for inflation, according to Comscore chief box office analyst Paul Dergarabedian.

“While this was a truly scary weekend for the industry, a confluence of factors created an imperfect marketplace storm wherein Halloween festivities along with one of the biggest sporting events on the planet [the World Series] dominated the zeitgeist over the weekend and thus had the effect of taking the spotlight off the movie theater experience,” says Dergarabedian, adding studios and cinemas should be commended for doing what they could to shore up the holes.

This year’s Halloween weekend meltdown — which caps the worst October in 27 years — is due to the lack of a big commercial title on the marquee, such as 2024’s Venom: The Last Dance. This year, exhibitors had to rely on an eclectic batch of holdovers; rereleases, including Back to the Future; and the expansion of Focus Features’ awards darling and specialty offering Bugonia.

Halloween is always a tough holiday for Hollywood and cinema owners, especially when the actual day falls on a Friday, as it did this year. Regretting You took a major hit that day since its target audience — younger females — were otherwise occupied. On Saturday, sales spiked 200 percent.

Domestically, Regretting You has earned $27.2 million in its first 10 days. Overseas, it earned another $8.2 million from 56 markets for a foreign tally of $23.3 million and north of $50 million globally. That’s a tidy number for the inexpensive film, which was produced and financed by Constantin Films.