Box Office: “Halloween Ends” #1 With Projected $43.4 Million Opening

“Halloween Ends” may be the last we see of Laurie Strode and Michael Myers, but the horror series still kills at the box office. Universal’s slasher finale is off to a strong start, projecting a $43.4 million opening from 3,901 theaters.

Even with “Halloween Ends” receiving a simultaneous streaming debut on Peacock, the film has managed to draw an impressive figure. Though “Ends” will debut slightly beneath initial projections, it will earn more than enough to top weekend charts, sparking some life into what has largely been a muted season for moviegoing. In fact, “Ends” will likely be the first film to open higher than $40 million at the domestic box office since Universal’s “Nope” nearly three months ago.

“Ends” is tracking below last year’s franchise entry, “Halloween Kills,” which earned a $49 million domestic opening in its own day-and-date release. 2018’s “Halloween,” the first entry in this new sequel trilogy to John Carpenter’s landmark 1978 original, released exclusively to theaters, at a time before Peacock was anything more than a developing project at NBCUniversal. The film garnered a staggering $76 million — still the third-highest domestic debut ever for a horror film, after the two “It” entries.

Even with the horror franchise’s sink into diminishing financial returns, “Halloween Ends” only carries a $20 million production budget, meaning that the film is likely to be well on its way to turning a profit.

The slasher finale has been largely dismissed by critics, earning a 30% approval rating from top critics on the review-aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes. Variety chief film critic Owen Gleiberman wrote that the film “doesn’t finish off the franchise by being the most scary or fun entry in the series. (It should have been both, but it’s neither.) Instead, it’s the most joylessly metaphorical and convoluted entry.”

Reviews aren’t usually an overwhelming box office factor for horror entries or franchise plays — two categories that “Halloween Ends” checks off. Even so, general audiences aren’t being very receptive to the film, which bites off a lot more narrative than the final showdown teased by its marketing. The film has earned a “C+” grade through research firm CinemaScore, indicating a largely mediocre reputation among ticket buyers.

That lands lower than last year’s “Halloween Kills” (B-), which toppled 71% in its second weekend. “Kills” ended up with an extremely front-loaded box office performance, earning more than half of its total domestic gross in its first weekend. Whether that was due to some combination of streaming availability or less-than-stellar word-of-mouth can’t necessarily be proven, but both of those factors are at play again for “Halloween Ends.”

Directed by David Gordon Green, “Halloween Ends” sees Jamie Lee Curtis return as Laurie Strode to kill Michael Myers once and for all, though the town of Haddonfield, Ill. has its own lingering demons. The film also stars Andi Matichak, James Jude Courtney, Will Patton, Kyle Richards and Rohan Campbell as Corey.

Even with

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