Come Play: Horror tops Halloween box office weekend

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

Come Play creeps into first!

On this pandemic Halloween weekend, moviegoers looking for a few cinematic chills went to check out the new horror movie COME PLAY, putting it on top at the box office with an estimated $3.1 million.

The PG-13 thriller features Gillian Jacobs ("Community") and John Gallagher Jr. (10 CLOVERFIELD LANE) as parents trying to protect their son (Azhy Robertson of MARRIAGE STORY) from a monster that manifests through the boy's internet devices.

Written and directed by Jacob Chase (adapted from his own short film), the Focus Features release premiered on 2180 screens. Financed by Amblin, the horror movie reportedly cost less than $10 million.

Critics weren't entirely satisfied with the tech-themed terror, giving the movie an average of 52% on Rotten Tomatoes and a Metacritic score of 59. You can lurk on over to the JoBlo review HERE.

The Liam Neeson crime-drama HONEST THIEF moved to second place with $1.3 million on its third weekend, giving the PG-13 thriller a domestic total of $9.5 million and a worldwide total of $14.5 million.

The PG-rated Robert De Niro comedy THE WAR WITH GRANDPA was in third place with $1.08 million, bringing it to a domestic total of $11.3 million after four weekends.

In fourth place was Christopher Nolan's $200 million action-thriller TENET with $885,000 over its tenth weekend on North American screens. The time-twisting espionage tale now has a domestic total of $53.8 million, passing the $53.1 million finish of Nolan's 2006 Christian Bale/Hugh Jackman dueling-magician movie THE PRESTIGE.

The rest of the chart was filled out with Halloween-appropriate movies both old and new, with supernatural thriller THE EMPTY MAN in fifth place with $561,000 on its second weekend. The R-rated horror movie dropped by 57% from its opening last week for a ten-day domestic total of $2.2 million.

Disney's re-issues of family-friendly frights HOCUS POCUS and THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS were in sixth and seventh place, followed by a reappearance from John Carpenter's 1978 slasher classic HALLOWEEN.

The original menace of Michael Myers went stalking onto 565 screens over the weekend for $315,000, which takes it to a rolling domestic total of $47.6 million (not adjusted for inflation).

The re-release of Pixar's MONSTERS, INC. was in ninth place, and the new thriller SPELL closed out the list. The R-rated horror movie with Omari Hardwick (Ghost from Starz series "Power") as a man trapped by Appalachian black magic made $210,000 on 369 screens as it also became available via VOD.

Next weekend offers the Kevin Costner/Diane Lane thriller LET HIM GO, and any catalog titles that get tossed onto screens as we trudge through the ongoing viral existence.

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