WEEKEND BOX OFFICE: Dune Wins Halloween Frame w/ $15.53M; My Hero Academia Debuts in 4th ($6.4M); Last Night in Soho ($4.22M) & Antlers ($4.2M) Disappoint

Despite the opening of no fewer than three titles in wide release this weekend (Last Night in Soho, Antlers and My Hero Academia) and the expansion of The French Dispatch into 788 theaters, Warner Bros.’ Dune easily retained the top spot at the box office in its sophomore frame with an estimated $15.53M, marking a rather steep 62% decline from its $41M debut. Mixed results were in store for the remainder of the weekend’s new titles, whose grosses were depressed in part due to Halloween falling on a Sunday.

As a big-budget tentpole, Dune had little direct competition this weekend, though as with previous HBO Max day-and-date titles – namely The Suicide Squad and Mortal Kombat, both of which dropped over 70% in their sophomore frames – it suffered a relatively steep decline. The $165M-budgeted title, which had a sequel greenlit by the studio last week, has taken in $69.4M in North America to date. Unfortunately, the Dennis Villeneuve-directed adaptation is facing down next weekend’s release of Marvel’s Eternals, which will surely dominate the box office and gobble up a substantial portion of Dune’s intended audience.   

Buoyed by the titular holiday, and despite competition from two new horror films, Halloween Kills finished in second place in its third weekend with an estimated $8.5M, a drop of just 41%. The total for the horror sequel now stands at $85.63M, which is about 57% of what its predecessor – which debuted exclusively in theaters pre-pandemic – had at the same point in its run.

No Time to Die eased just 36% to third place with an estimated $7.82M, bringing the James Bond entry to $133.33M through the end of its fourth weekend. Not adjusting for inflation, the MGM/UA release is running about even with 2006’s Casino Royale at the same point in its run.

Debuting in fourth place was Funimation’s My Hero Academia: World Heroes’ Mission, which holds strong appeal among fans of the ongoing anime franchise. The prior two theatrical entries in the series – 2020’s My Hero Academia: Heroes Rising ($13.3M domestic total) and 2018’s My Hero Academia: Two Heroes ($5.8M domestic) – previously scored healthy limited-time runs in North America. Though it debuted in just 1,602 locations, World Heroes’ Mission leapfrogged over the weekend’s two higher-profile newcomers, Last Night in Soho and Antlers, to gross an estimated $6.4M.

Venom: Let There Be Carnage finished in fifth place in its fifth weekend with an estimated $5.75M, for a total of $190.44M to date. The antihero sequel is running just slightly behind the first Venom, which had $198.69M by the same point in its run, and will soon surpass the $200M mark — making it just the second film in the pandemic era to cross that threshold.

Falling below expectations in its opening frame was Focus Features’ Last Night in Soho, the latest film from director Edgar Wright. The horror-thriller, which finished neck-and-neck with the weekend’s other horror newcomer Antlers, was never expected to perform at the level of Wright’s last movie — the more traditional Baby Driver, which took in over $107M in North America in 2017 — and yet with just $4.22M from 3,016 locations, Soho came in under even the most conservative projections heading into the weekend. Though it received generally positive reviews, its difficult-to-market time-travel premise made it a tougher sell to mainstream audiences. Speaking of audience, the film skewed slightly male, with men making up 57% of the opening weekend turnout. The studio notes that Soho performed best on the coasts, with Los Angeles and New York making up nearly a quarter of the weekend audience.

Coming in just below Soho in seventh place — though their positions could switch once actuals are tallied on Monday — was Searchlight Pictures’ Antlers, which took in an estimated $4.2M from 2,800 locations. The Scott Cooper-directed film, which was originally slated for release in April 2020, simply couldn’t compete in a weekend crowded with other horror titles including Halloween Kills and Soho. The audience was nearly two-thirds male (59% vs. 41% female) and 69% under the age of 35.

After opening to a not-great $7.3M last weekend, Disney/20^th Century Studios’ Ron’s Gone Wrong grossed an estimated $3.8M in its second frame, a drop of 48%. The animated title has taken in an underwhelming $12.6M to date.

In ninth place was The Addams Family 2, which grossed an estimated $3.28M in its fifth weekend, a drop of just 27%. The spooky animated title, which clearly benefitted from the Halloween frame, has a decent $52.86M to date – significantly below that of the first Addams Family by the same point in its run in 2019, though of course that film didn’t have a day-and-date release on VOD.

The French Dispatch grossed an estimated $2.76M in its expansion from 52 to 788 locations after the Wes Anderson title debuted to a solid $1.35M last weekend. The per-screen average for the oddball comedy was $3,503; its domestic total is now $4.64M.

OVERSEAS

No Time to Die opened to $28.2M in China, which contributed mightily to the film’s estimated $51.9M haul for the weekend in a total of 72 territories. In the U.K. and Ireland, it’s now the sixth-highest-grossing film of all time, having now surpassed Titanic and Star Wars: The Last Jedi with a total of $116.42M.

Dune grossed an estimated $21.4M from 75 markets, giving it an overseas total of $222.7M and a worldwide total of $292.1M. To date, the sci-fi epic has grossed $33M in China, $29M in France, $21M in Russia, $19.9M in Germany and $18.1M in the U.K.

Venom: Let There Be Carnage also took in an estimated $21.4M, from 53 markets, bringing its international tally to $205.4M and its global total to $395.8M. The film’s top-grossing territories are Russia ($31.2M), Mexico ($21.5M), the U.K. ($20.2M), South Korea ($16.8M) and Brazil ($10.1M).