Bad Robot’s long-delayed and rumored about World War Two zombie tale Overlord finished third at the weekend box office while the break-out hits of October, Venom and Halloween (2018), continued to pad their already impressive totals.
Overlord, once rumored to be the fourth installment in the Cloverfield franchise, finished third with a modest $10.1 million dollar debut. The hard-R tale of mad zombie science run amok may have been too much for the average movie-goer (who gave the film a mediocre B Cinemascore rating), but Overlord did score high with critics (the film currently has an aggregate rating of 81% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes). The film will certainly earn back all of its production costs ($38 million) once international sales are included, but don’t expect Overlord to perform much better over the coming weeks with continued competition from tent-pole pictures from all of the major studios.
Carrying over their success from October, Venom and Halloween (2018) continued to earn money in November, with an 8th place finish for Venom ($4.85 million) and a ninth place finish for Halloween ($3.84 million). Venom’s domestic total currently sits at over $206 million and the international receipts bring the film well over $670 million dollars. Halloween is beginning to slow down (especially with the direct competition from Overlord this weekend), yet the film crossed the $150 million mark and is very close to $250 world-wide at this point.
In less positive news, the sequel to David Fincher’s The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, The Girl in the Spider’s Web, got tangled up and lost in the plethora of new films and consistent October earners and only made a little over $8 million at the box office. Director Fede Alvarez’s first non-horror entry did not fare well with critics, posting a 43% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The timing of the release was also questionable with Overlord and Halloween targeting similar audiences, not giving the director of Don’t Breathe a chance to bring over fans of his horror material to the franchise. A quick exit from your local cinema is all but assured based on the film’s anemic debut.
Speaking of quick exits, if you haven’t had the chance to see Luca Guadagnino’s Suspiria remake, you better get out to the movie theater soon, as the film is only playing in 261 theaters, down 50 from last week. The film has grossed a total of $2 million for Amazon Studios, which never quiet got around to giving the film a wide-release. This isn’t a surprise for horror fans, as even in the horror community, Argento’s films (or those based on his work) are an acquired taste. Look for Suspiria to appear on Amazon Prime very soon.
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