This year’s Halloween sequel has broken several records in its opening weekend, taking over $77million at the US box office.
Now officially the biggest opening for any horror film with a female lead, the biggest for any film with a female lead over 55, and the biggest for any Halloween movie in the franchise, the film is only just behind this year’s Venom for the all-time October record.
Jamie Lee Curtis took to Twitter to celebrate with “one boast post”, sharing a photo of herself and her female co-stars.
“I am enormously proud of this film,” said Jason Blum of Blumhouse Productions, who co-financed the film with Miramax. “Halloween brings the franchise back to life in a fresh, relevant and fun way that is winning over fans and critics alike.”
Jim Orr, Universal’s president of domestic distribution, put the success down to the big time gap between the original Halloween and the latest instalment (ignoring the other dozen sequels that the film tries to paper over). “There had been quite some time since the original film,” Orr said. “You combine that with the return of a tremendous star in Jamie Lee Curtis, great writing, great filmmaking. All of that comes together as a perfect storm.”
We agreed in our review, calling it “respectful and progressive, chilling and inventive and frankly much better than many of us dared to expect”.
Well done Laurie.