Box Office: ‘Ticket To Paradise’ Nabs Solid $6.4 Million Friday, ‘Halloween Ends’ Plunges 88%

The opening of Universal's Ticket to Paradise was a great news for the industry. Even without music, action or fantasy, the sub-genre of live-action comedies is still alive and well. We can expect an over/under $16.5 million domestic launch with mixed- negative reviews and an A- from Cinemascore. The $60 million rom-com about two bitterly divorced parents who team up to sabotage their daughter's wedding should be gross. There is nothing for adults to dislike until Thanksgiving weekend. After a month-long international roll out, it has earned 73 million dollars.

The Banshees of Inisherin opened in four theaters yesterday and earned $67,000 in its first day. Searchlight's dramedy will bring in an average of over $40,000 per-theater. The movie was added to 104 theaters in advance of its nationwide release. The film earned $120,000 on Friday and is expected to earn $351,000 over the weekend and $3,377 per-theater average. Next weekend, TR will be released. It expanded to 141 theaters and should make $510,000 over the weekend for a $3,617 per-theater average and over one million dollars in 17 days. We will see how many of this year's Oscar nominees are able to outgross the other one.

Halloween ends took a near-record 89% drop on its second Friday, earning just $2.74 million for a likely $8 million weekend and 54.178 million ten day total. This one was killed quickly by the poor review, divisive word-of-mouth and concurrent Peacock availability. I remember when the biggest Halloween movies made over 50 million dollars, including $47 million for Halloween in 1978 and $55 million for Halloween H20 in 1998. Paramount's PARA is the scariest movie of the scary season, earning 2.57 million dollars while adding 142 theaters. We can expect a weekend of $8.5 million and a 24 day total of $84.5 million. It will surpass Halloween Kills next weekend as it approaches the $100 million mark.

Reports of audiences falling ill led to petitions to get the film banned. The idiots who tried to raise $200 million for a remake of The Last Jedi are just as stupid as the ones who tried to remake Halloween Ends. An old-school video nasty-type flick can still get a lot of attention in this fragmented media culture. The movie earned $545,500 on Friday and is expected to make at least $2.29 million over the weekend and $5.50 million domestically. This is quite unexpected because of the idea of demographically specific event movies. The movie is turning into a movie about a showman.

A disappointing $28.7 million 17-day gross was earned by Sony's Lyle Lyle Crocodile on Friday. The Woman King made $520,000 on Friday and had a weekend gross of $1.93 million. 20th Century Studios' all-star Amsterdam will have just 14 million dollars by the 17th, while Warner Bros. Discovery's Don't Worry Darling will have 44 million by the 31st. The $4 million, R-rated original Barbarian will cross $40 million domestic this weekend, a remarkable achievement even though Smile stole much of the attention. Top Gun will plunge 61% in weekend 22 for a $261,000 weekend to plummet out of the top 10. It will have to spend over a billion dollars domestically and over a billion dollars internationally.