{"id":316494,"date":"2025-10-19T17:27:17","date_gmt":"2025-10-19T17:27:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/316494\/"},"modified":"2025-10-19T17:27:17","modified_gmt":"2025-10-19T17:27:17","slug":"black-phone-2-grabs-26-5-million-in-another-slow-october-weekend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/316494\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Black Phone 2’ Grabs $26.5 Million in Another Slow October Weekend"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tUniversal and Blumhouse\u2019s horror sequel \u201cBlack Phone 2<\/a>\u201d kicked off spooky season with $26.5 million from 3,411 North American theaters. Those ticket sales were enough to lead an otherwise sleepy weekend at the domestic box office.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cBlack Phone 2\u201d opened in line with expectations and slightly ahead of its predecessor. The original \u201cBlack Phone\u201d launched with $23 million in 2022 as cinemas were only starting to recover from COVID. Just to give a sense of the vastly different box office landscape between the first and second film: With similar ticket sales, \u201cBlack Phone\u201d opened in fourth place behind \u201cElvis,\u201d \u201cTop Gun: Maverick\u201d and \u201cJurassic World: Dominion\u201d in the height of summer movie season.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn contrast, the \u201cBlack Phone\u201d follow-up had a sluggish October weekend mostly to itself. This weekend\u2019s other newcomer, Lionsgate\u2019s R-rated comedy \u201cGood Fortune,\u201d opened at No. 3 with just $6.2 million from 2,990 venues. Second place went to Disney\u2019s sci-fi sequel \u201cTron: Ares\u201d with $11.1 million from 4,000 screens, representing a steep 66% decline from its first outing. Right now, the October box office is down 11% from the same point in 2024, according to Comscore.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cBlack Phone 2\u201d also collected $15.5 million at the international box office for a global tally of $42 million. Though a promising result, Universal and Blumhouse spent more to bring back Ethan Hawke as the serial killer known as the Grabber. The sequel cost $30 million compared to the first film\u2019s $18 million price tag. \u201cBlack Phone 2\u201d has decent reviews but wasn\u2019t received as fondly as the original by moviegoers; this film earned a \u201cB\u201d grade on CinemaScore exit polls while the first landed a \u201cB+\u201d grade. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe\u2019ve seen word-of-mouth grow over the weekend,\u201d says Universal\u2019s president of domestic distribution Jim Orr. \u201cThe reasons are simple: Blumhouse and director Scott Derrickson have crafted something that\u2019s terrifying, with a great cast. It\u2019s just what audiences want to see in theaters.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSince ticket sales are split roughly 50-50 between studios and movie theaters, \u201cBlack Phone 2\u201d needs to stick around to count as a major comeback for Blumhouse. The low-budget horror empire, responsible for \u201cParanormal Activity,\u201d \u201cThe Purge,\u201d \u201cGet Out\u201d \u201cHalloween\u201d and other franchises with scary-good profit margins, has long been one of Hollywood\u2019s most consistent hitmakers. However the company\u2019s fortunes have shifted over the past year with one dud after another including \u201cWolf Man\u201d and \u201cM3GAN 2.0.\u201d Blumhouse has another sequel, \u201cFive Nights at Freddy\u2019s 2,\u201d on the calendar in December.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cGood Fortune\u201d has the good fortune of respectable reviews (78% on Rotten Tomatoes) and audience scores (a \u201cB+\u201d grade on CinemaScore). The trouble is that not enough people were incentivized to buy tickets for the $30 million-budgeted film. Aziz Ansari directed in his feature debut and stars in \u201cGood Fortune,\u201d which revolves around a good-intentioned but inept angel (Keanu Reeves) who facilitates a body swap between a struggling gig worker (Ansari) and a wealthy venture capitalist (Seth Rogen).<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThis is a fair opening for an original character-driven comedy,\u201d says David A. Gross, who runs the movie consulting firm Franchise Entertainment Research.\u00a0However \u201ceven with Keanu Reeves helping ancillary business, the movie is unlikely to recoup its costs.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAnother film that\u2019ll struggle to get out of the red is \u201cTron: Ares.\u201d So far the futuristic film has earned $54.6 million domestically and $103 million worldwide after two weekends of release. Although the $100 million mark is notable, Disney spent $180 million to produce and many millions to promote the sequel, so \u201cTron: Ares\u201d requires substantial staying power to justify those costs.<\/p>\n

\n\tChanning Tatum\u2019s dramedy \u201cRoofman\u201d and Leonardo DiCaprio\u2019s action comedy \u201cOne Battle After Another\u201d rounded out the top of box office charts.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cRoofman\u201d earned $3.7 million from 3,370 theaters in its second weekend, marking a 55% decline from its debut. So far the film has generated $15.5 million and $16.4 million worldwide, a paltry total albiet against a modest $18 million budget.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cOne Battle After Another\u201d collected $3.75 million from 2,532 locations in its fourth outing, bringing its domestic total to $61 million. The Warner Bros. film, directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, has been a steady performer overseas with $100 million to date, bringing the global total to $162.5 million. That\u2019s an impressive figure for an original, R-rated film that\u2019s nearly three hours long. <\/p>\n

\n\tHowever the studio spent more than $130 million to produce and roughly $70 million to promote \u201cOne Battle,\u201d which requires about $300 million to break even. At this rate, the movie is tracking to lose $100 million<\/a> in its theatrical run, according to studio executives with knowledge of the economics of similar-sized films. (Warner Bros. refutes those estimates.) \u201cOne Battle After Another\u201d is, however, expected to be a major Oscar player, which makes it valuable to the company in ways beyond the balance sheet.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tElsewhere, director Luca Guadagnino\u2019s #MeToo-inspired thriller \u201cAfter the Hunt\u201d failed to sustain any traction while expanding nationwide. At No. 7, the movie brought in $1.56 million from 1,238 theaters. After one weekend in limited release, \u201cAfter the Hunt\u201d has amassed just $1.77 million, a dispiriting result for something led by major stars including Julia Roberts, Ayo Edebiri and Andrew Garfield.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn limited release, Iranian director Jafar Panahi\u2019s Palme d\u2019Or winner \u201cIt Was Just an Accident\u201d scored $68,000 from three venues in New York City and Los Angeles, averaging $22,000 per location. The film, released by Neon and expected to be an awards contender, has grossed $115,000 since Wednesday. <\/p>\n

\n\tRichard Linklater\u2019s dramedy \u201cBlue Moon\u201d didn\u2019t fare as well among speciality titles. The movie earned $67,060 from five locations, averaging $13,412 per screen. Hawke also stars in \u201cBlue Moon\u201d (in a very different role from \u201cBlack Phone 2\u201d) as songwriter Lorenz Hart as he reflects on the opening night of \u201cOklahoma,\u201d a new musical by his former collaborator Richard Rodgers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Universal and Blumhouse\u2019s horror sequel \u201cBlack Phone 2\u201d kicked off spooky season with $26.5 million from 3,411 North…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":316495,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[99579,171,53,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-316494","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-black-phone-2","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-movies","11":"tag-united-states","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115402011322096393","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316494","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=316494"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316494\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/316495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=316494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=316494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=316494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}