October had the worst box office receipts for that month since 1997 (not including the pandemic).
Where were y’all last month? Horror fans do their best to support their genre and their movies at the box office. They literally supported theaters during Covid and helped modernize home viewing protocols: remember the concurrent theatrical and streaming release of Invisible Man in 2020?
But October is our month and yet we didn’t show up. Albeit the horror offerings were scarce, but even a big title like Black Phone 2 underperformed.
It’s sad that despite great word of mouth Good Boy wasn’t bigger and the mixed hype behind Shelby Oaks swung more toward the negative. To be fair, those movies weren’t on as many screens, living in limited release hell.
But there’s no excuse for Black Phone 2 which opened mid-month, and yes, a cumulative $61 million domestically thus far isn’t small potatoes, but consider that Conjuring: Last Rites just a month prior made $84 million on its first day! Black Phone 2 is in its third week.
Also horror fans may love their genre but they aren’t one trick ponies. They show up for other genres too. Since most of us also like sci-fi, it was kind of a surprise Tron: Ares derezzed on impact. Although Jared Leto isn’t exactly on anyone’s good list lately.
There is one positive note for horror fans in October, but it’s on the small screen. HBO’s It Welcome to Derry has come out of the gate strong. A shocking first episode and a promising follow-up should gain positive word of mouth.
Hollywood is in its awkward transitional period. Studios don’t seem to know how to appease this new generation of distracted theatergoers. On one hand, they’ve got all these great titles on the slate, but on the other, the death of the blockbuster hype machine is killing all intrigue. Furthermore, the trend of giving away the movie in trailers is a weird decision Hollywood is making to their detriment.
Now that the holiday movie vibes are upon us, perhaps the box office can recover from an abysmal October. We’ve got Wicked, Avatar 3, Predator: Badlands and The Running Man to look forward to.