Paramount and Constantin Films' romantic-drama Regretting You, the second adaptation of Colleen Hoover's book to hit the big screen after It Ends With Us, is claiming victory in this year's Halloween box office contest. According to Sunday estimates from David Ellison's new regime, Regretting You placed No. 1 with a staggering $8.1 million from 3,245 cinemas in its second outing. But did it really? Universal is also estimating a first-place finish for Blumhouse's Black Phone 2 with $8 million from 3,425 cinemas. Most rival studios show the horror sequel, now in its third weekend, coming in ahead of Regretting You.
But Paramount has good reason to be bullish. Last weekend, Regretting You did switch positions with Black Phone and place No. 2 when final numbers came in, with Regretting You beating the Blumhouse pic by a safe margin. Monday will determine the correct order of the Oct. 31-Nov. 2 frame and whether Paramount was being too aggressive in the hunt for a good headline.
Generally in such situations, a studio in Universal's position would call the contest a tie, but in this case, no one complained, considering overall ticket sales for the weekend came in at a dismal $49.8 million - the worst showing of the year to date. But that's not the most frightening fact - it was the lowest-grossing Halloween weekend in 31 years, according to Comscore. This excludes 2020, when the COVID-19 crisis forced theater closures for months. The last time Halloween weekend revenue came in lower was in 1993, when combined ticket sales reached a mere $49.2 million - not adjusted for inflation, according to Comscore chief box office analyst Paul Dergarabedian.
Meanwhile, "One Battle After Another," the award-bait juggernaut featuring Leonardo DiCaprio, Paul Thomas Anderson's cinematic offering continued its remarkable run, lingering in the top 10 of North America's box office chart on its sixth week. It raked in $1.2 million from 954 screens, bringing its domestic tally to a grand $67.8 million. Defying the skeptics, it's on a path to surpass the $200 million mark worldwide, having concluded Sunday with a foreign haul of $123 million. This is a clear indication of its status as the filmmaker's most financially successful venture; his previous best, "There Will Be Blood" (2007), had unadjusted earnings of $77.2 million, while 2024's "Licorice Pizza" peaked at $37 million, considered a triumph for an independent title. (Granted, "One Battle" boasts a significantly larger budget but has held its ground unlike many other award contenders.)
Elsewhere in the special event landscape, attempting to fill the void mentioned by Dergarabedian was "Depeche Mode: M," a concert film from Sony Music Vision and Trafalgar that grossed $1.1 million domestically and $4.7 million overseas for a total of $5.7 million from more than 2,600 screens across 70 countries after its midweek opening. Conceived and directed by Mexican filmmaker Fernando Frías, this concert film celebrates the band's global influence while delving into the profound bond between death, music, mortality, and Mexican tradition that the band captured during their 2023 "Memento Mori" tour.
