Box Office: ‘Black Phone 2’ Dials It in for Blumhouse With $26.5M U.S. Opening and $42M Globally
Blumhouse is back in action. Scott Derrickson’s sequelBlack Phone 2delivered horror maestro Jason Blum a major win in opening to a better-than-expected $26.5 million domestically from 3,411 theaters and $42 million globally. The pic’s debut follows a string of misses for the banner, culminating with the pricey flop ofM3GAN 2.0earlier this year. The Universal and…
Blumhouse is back in action.
Scott Derrickson’s sequelBlack Phone 2delivered horror maestro Jason Blum a major win in opening to a better-than-expected $26.5 million domestically from 3,411 theaters and $42 million globally. The pic’s debut follows a string of misses for the banner, culminating with the pricey flop ofM3GAN 2.0earlier this year.
The Universal and Blumhouse release easily came in No. 1 after scoring solid reviews and strong audience exits, including a B CinemaScore (that’s a great grade for the horror genre). Also notable: Latinos, the most frequent moviegoers, made up the largest segment of the audience at roughly 39 percent.
The sequel, costing a relatively modest $30 million to produce, returns Ethan Hawkeas the serial killer known as Grabber. Heading into the weekend, Universal had the movie’s debut at $18 million, but prerelease tracking turned out to be right in predicting that the R-rated sequel would come in ahead of the first film.
Black Phone, opening in 2021 when cinemas were first recovering from COVID, started off with $23.6 million in North America on its way to turning into a sleeper hit, amassing more than $161 million in worldwide ticket sales (that was before horror fatigue struck at the box office).
Lionsgate’sAziz Ansari-directed comedyGood Fortunealso launched nationwide this weekend, but wasn’t so lucky. The $30 million film took in an estimated $6.2 million from 2,990 locations domestically to come in on the low end of expectations despite its star-packed cast and a B+ CinemaScore. The cast is led bySeth Rogen, Ansari and Keke Palmer, with Sandra Oh andKeanu Reeves.
Good Fortune tells the story of a scruffy guardian angel assigned to save someone’s soul.
More to come.
