Box Office Report for the Week of October 13

It’s a cataclysmic fall for Joker: Folie à Deux as the biggest drop of any comic book movie in history! The movie falls in third place with a meager $7.1 million tally, and a historic 81% drop. Not only is this not good for the financial viability of the sequel to Todd Phillips‘ Oscar-winning film, but it’s also not a great sign for James Gunn‘s DCU, which may be dead on arrival.

One will have to see how Creature Commandos performs critically, which would be the first great step in making audiences pay attention to their titles. Though The Penguin is a massive critical and commercial hit, alongside SUPER/MAN: The Christopher Reeve Story, so there are glimmers of hope for Gunn to hold on to before his Superman comes out. However, the pressure will be massive. Not only have all (with the exception of Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, which was a moderate commercial success over the holidays) DC films since 2022 flopped tremendously at the box office, but the interest in superhero movies has also dwindled.

Of course, Deadpool & Wolverine was a tremendous success. But I highly doubt Captain America: Brave New World will be profitable in any way, considering the numerous controversies surrounding the movie or even Marvel’s summer movie Thunderbolts*. I’d obviously be happy to be proven wrong. Still, moviegoing habits have drastically changed over the past year, with a strong rejection of blockbusters in favor of more auteur-driven, independent art.

Case in point: Damien Leone‘s Terrifier 3, the sequel to the extremely low-budget, unrated Terrifier and Terrifier 2, has made over $18 million on a relatively small (but still the most expensive film of the franchise to date) $2 million budget. This is not only historic for the Terrifier franchise but also shows a shift in moviegoing that was not evident just five years ago when audiences would lap up each big blockbuster at every turn. Of course, this does not mean all blockbuster cinema is dead. Wicked is currently making a wicked amount of money in pre-sales (sorry, I had to do it). Still, audiences are looking for something unique rather than the same old stories regurgitated in a semi-different fashion.

While I have not seen any installments of the Terrifier franchise, I do know that the films developed a fanbase over the years, which has grown because of its natural word of mouth at festivals and public screenings of the first two movies. The second film was a bigger hit than Leone expected, leading to the production of the third movie. And with such skyrocketing acclaim from audiences (admittedly, gore is not my strength…I couldn’t sit through the ending of The Substance if I tried, but I know lots of people who adore these types of films), a fourth installment is all to be expected.

Here’s another movie that did far better than most people thought: The Apprentice. While it may not be a spectacular result for its opening weekend, reaching the top 10 after plenty of hurdles it received its way feels like a miracle. Director Ali Abbasi fought tooth and nail for as much of a wide release as possible for the movie, but many distributors had cold feet on a biopic chronicling the earlier days of Donald J. Trump. Justifiably so, but it does not portray a flattering portrait of the man. However, with so many legal issues that plagued the film until not long ago, it might have never seen the light of day. It not only did but made over $1.6 million in 1,740 theatres. That’s pretty good to me, if you can believe it!

Here is the full list of the top ten films of the weekend:

1. Terrifier 3 (Iconic Events): $18.3M – 2,514 theatres
2. The Wild Robot (Universal): $13.5M (-29%) – 3,854 theatres
3. Joker: Folie à Deux (Warner Bros): $7.1M (-81%) – 4,102 theatres
4. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (Warner Bros): $7.1M (-30%) – 3,408 theatres
5. Piece by Piece (Universal): $3.8M – 1,865 theatres
6. Transformers One (Paramount): $3.7M (-32%) – 2,758 theatres
7. Saturday Night (Sony): $3.4M (+1168%) – 2,309 theatres
8. My Hero Academia: You’re Next (Emick): $3.0M – 1,845 theatres
9. The Nightmare Before Christmas (2024 Re-Release) (Disney): $2.3M – 1,700 theatres
10. The Apprentice (Briarcliff Entertainment): $1.6M – 1,740 theatres

Source: Comscore