‘Halloween Ends’ slashes its way to top of the box office for weekend

No matter how you look at the numbers, “Halloween Ends” had a good opening weekend.

Touted as the final showdown between Laurie Strode and Michael Myers (photo), the slasher pic earned $41.3 million in ticket sales from 3,901 theaters in North America, according to studio estimates Sunday. It’s the first film to open higher than $40 million since “Nope” debuted in July and it surpassed its production budget, which has been reported to be between $20 million and $30 million.

The film also renewed an evergreen debate about day-and-date movie releases where some in Hollywood are wondering whether it could have been even bigger if it hadn’t debuted simultaneously on Peacock, NBC Universal’s streaming service.

Going into the weekend, some analysts had pegged “Halloween Ends” for an opening in the $50 million to $55 million range. “Halloween Kills,” the previous installment in the David Gordon Green-directed “Halloween” trilogy,” opened day-and-date last year and still grossed $49 million on opening weekend.

Green’s first “Halloween,” by contrast, debuted to $76.2 million in 2018. But that was prepandemic, theatrical release only and the highly anticipated revival of a beloved franchise with good reviews.

Many studios experimented with dayand-date releases during the second year of the pandemic to varying results, but 2022 has seen most returning to traditional theatrical-first releases — especially for their most valuable brands and franchises.

Though there was likely some financial impact on “Halloween Ends,” it’s hard to glean exactly how much money was left on the table with the release.

The Peacock platform is notably smaller than many of its streaming competitors, with 13 million paid subscribers reported at the end of July.

“Smile,” meanwhile, brought in another strong weekend, adding $12.4 million and bringing its domestic total to $71.2 million after three weeks.

Third place went to “Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile,” down 35% from its debut with $7.4 million, while “The Woman King” took fourth place with $3.7 million in its fifth weekend, bringing its domestic total to $59.7 million.

“Amsterdam” rounded out the top five in weekend two with $2.9 million.