Box Office Predictions: Prey For The Devil no match for second week of Black Adam

This weekend sees just one new wide release with Prey For The Devil as well as the expansion of two very well received Oscar hopefuls in Tár and Till. Of course none of those will present any sort of fight for the second weekend of Dwayne Johnson’s Black Adam, but let’s take a look at how they may perform anyway.

Prey For The Devil should be able to secure a top five finish this weekend with around $7 million. Of course horror movie openings are a bit tricky to predict as they generally thrive on the teenager walk up business that is hard to track before a movie actually opens. With it opening just days before Halloween, the studio seems to be going for broke with this release, hoping to secure a big enough weekend to cover their production costs. The most recent possession movie would be The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It which had a $24.1 million opening weekend in June 2021. That isn’t really a good comp for this film as it was the third film in a hit franchise that was released during an unprecedented pandemic with a day and date release on streaming! If we want a true comp for this one, we’d have to go all the way back to December 2016 when the Aaron Eckhart starring Incarnate was released and finished its first weekend in ninth place with just $2.5 million. I think Prey For The Devil can slot a bit higher and get to $7 million.

With last weekend’s $67 million debut, Black Adam may not have hit the highs of early DC films, but it was enough to claim the top spot on Dwayne Johnson’s leading man resume. Positive word of mouth and a real lack of competition will propel this one to a solid second weekend. I only see this one losing around 30% of its audience with a weekend total between $45-50 million. To compare it to another DC movie that opened in the $67 million range would be Aquaman which opened to $67.8 million and had a second weekend of $52.1 million. Of course that was released over Christmas with its second weekend coming during a time when most people are off of school and work and use that time to go to the movies. Black Adam’s second weekend falls on a weekend when most people generally don’t go to the movies as Monday is Halloween, meaning this weekend most people will skip the movies in favor of Halloween parties where they dress as “Sexy Black Adam” or “Sexy Aquaman” or “Sexy Nun from Prey For The Devil” and that can potentially have an impact on all the numbers.

Barring some sort of unforeseen miracle with Prey For The Devil, second place should belong to the well liked Ticket To Paradise with around $10 million added to its cash box. The good news is this one is already a pretty massive hit as it just passed $100 million at the worldwide box office. The film may not have impressed too many critics (our own JimmyO gave it just a 5/10) but the crowds are eating it up with a solid 89% audience score. If I am being honest, I am one of those 89%, as I thought the film was nothing new at all and yet I enjoyed every minute of it! A romantic comedy needs two leads that you genuinely enjoy watching with a supporting cast that lifts them up and that is exactly what this movie had. We won’t be talking about this in the same breath as When Harry Met Sally but this is a solid choice for a good light hearted date night movie.

Smile will continue its insanely successful run this weekend grabbing those end of October box office dollars. The horror thriller has had small week to week drop offs and is only about $10 million away from crossing the magical $100 million mark (with worldwide numbers adding nearly $90 million to that number). It probably won’t get there this weekend as it should finish with around $6.5 million, but by this time next week Smile will be a member of the $100 million club (domestic), which I don’t think anyone predicted when the trailer first dropped.

And just in case you still need more terror at the theater, the surprise hit Terrifier 2 will expand its theater count this weekend by over a thousand screens as it continues its surprisingly successful run in the top ten. (You can check out our own Cody Hamman’s review here)

This weekend will also be the big final push for Halloween Ends as it tries to put a few extra bucks in its till during its namesake holiday. Speaking of Till, (great segue, thank you) this weekend also represents the wide release of the incredibly well reviewed film with many critics saying Danielle Deadwyler’s performance is a sure thing for a Best Actress nomination. Prestige films such as this one, and the also expanding Tár (with many predicting a third Oscar win for lead actress Cate Blanchett) have not really found their groove at the box office since the Pandemic saw older movie goers, the type that tend to come out to see the awards contenders, are still a bit hesitant to return to theaters. Having said that, there should still be enough butts in seats to get these two in the top ten.

If you aren’t dressing up as “Sexy Alf” this weekend at a Halloween party, will you be venturing out to the theaters to see one of the above mentioned movies? Let us know in the comments and don’t forget to check back on Saturday when we give a brief update on the box office numbers.

BOX OFFICE PREDICTIONS