Venom was able to easily win the weekend as well crush the record for the largest ever October opening weekend with $80.2 million, while A Star is Born also had a great debut with $42.9 million for the October 5-7 weekend.
Coming into the weekend, Venom had been tricky to nail down, but it managed to outperform even the higher end of tracking for it. Poor reviews from critics did not seem to deter superhero movie fans, and the lack of action movies playing in theaters also likely helped. Venom beat Gravity‘s 2013 opening ($55.7 million) by nearly $25 million, a massive increase. In retrospect, my forecast for the film was too low, and was banking on the negative reception from critics as well as heavily criticized trailers, and not factoring in strongly enough the large amount of trailer views and lack of action films playing, as well as the draw of Tom Hardy.
While I underpredicted Venom, I was a bit too high on my expectations for A Star is Born, which still managed to break out and outperform most expectations, but not quite to the level I had expected. I knew my predictions were well above tracking, but sometimes you just need to follow your gut to anticipate a breakout. Still, A Star is Born‘s $42.9 million opening weekend is a fantastic result for the film, which reportedly cost $36 million. With a strong response from audiences (An A CinemaScore), great reviews, and lots of Oscar buzz, the R-Rated musical should have a strong run, although at this point it would take a miracle for it to outgross Venom.
The rest of the top 10 came in largely as expected. Smallfoot was third with $14.4 million in its second weekend (less than 1% off my forecast). It is playing very similar to Storks, another WB animated film that debuted on the same weekend two years ago. If it continues to hold similarly, it should finish around $75 million domestically.
Night School pulled in $12.5 million in its sophomore frame, as expected. The $29 million comedy has grossed nearly $47 million to date, making it another modest success for the very consistent Kevin Hart.
The House With a Clock in Its Walls had a strong hold as Halloween approaches, pulling in $7.3 million in its third weekend, and also its last weekend before it has to deal with Goosebumps 2.
Sixth and seventh went to A Simple Favor ($3.4 million) and The Nun ($2.7 million), while Crazy Rich Asians took eight with $2.1 million in its eight weekend, bring it to $169 million.
Rounding out the top 10 are Hell Fest ($2.0 million, $8.8 million total) which has avoided being the bomb it had appeared destined to be, and The Predator, which took a nosedive this weekend, bringing in $0.9 million for $50 million so far, although it won’t get much more than that.
Next weekend will be an indicator of how Venom and A Star is Born will do in the long run, while Goosebumps 2, First Man, and Bad Times at the El Royal all debut.
Film Central 