Movie News
Scary-Good Box Office for Halloween
Posted by John Cairns (jcairns@filmschoolrejects.com) on September 2, 2007
Well the box office numbers are in at The Reject Report and it was a big weekend for Halloween. Easy first-place finish, $26 million smackeroos, and a new record to boot! So much for the theory out there that people were fed up with horror movies. I think people want to see horror movies, but only if they’re good horror movies. Although this one got some pretty bad reviews from a lot of people. So maybe people are just starved for Halloween movies. I dunno.
The projected total Labor Day take for Halloween is going to be around $33 mil, according to Nikki Finke over at Deadline Hollywood Daily. The really big news is that Halloween set the USA box office record for a new release over a Labor Day weekend. Which tells you all you need to know about how big a weekend it usually is for movies when all you need to do is make $26 million dollars, or $33 mil, and it’s a record. Halloween set the 3-day record and it will set the 4-day record. Not too shabby.
The 3-day record had been held by Transporter 2 from two years ago, and the all-time four-day record was held by The Sixth Sense from 1999, which grossed $29 mil. Halloween should easily beat that.
On a positive note, I actually sort of landed in the ballpark with my predictions this week. Big deal.
The numbers, courtesy of Box Office Mojo:
| Release | Studio | Studio Estimate |
| Halloween | Dimension | $26,503,000 |
| Superbad | Columbia | $12,200,000 |
| Balls of Fury | Rogue Pictures | $11,604,795 |
| The Bourne Ultimatum | Universal | $10,183,000 |
| Rush Hour 3 | New Line | $8,560,000 |
| Mr. Bean’s Holiday | Universal | $5,930,000 |
| The Nanny Diaries | MGM / Weinstein | $5,108,000 |
| Death Sentence | Fox | $4,180,000 |
| War | Lionsgate | $3,610,000 |
| Stardust | Paramount | $3,008,000 |
I really don’t have much to say other than the fall season is coming soon, and it will be kicked off this coming week in Toronto when the Toronto International Film Festival opens there. All the big stars will be there and I’m sure all the autograph hounds in town will be roaming around, trying to spot Brad Pitt and George Clooney walking down the streets. Also, it’s usually a good preview of what the “hot new movie” is going to be at the box office, so watch out for that. Last year Borat played at the festival and it was a big hit, and it sort of got the ball rolling for that flick when it went wide.
That’s all for right now, back later this week for more right here at The Reject Report.
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