Nobody was expecting any fireworks from the box office this weekend when everyone was otherwise occupied readying themselves for Halloween, but a weak frame is still disheartening when theatrical business has been booming all month, with October 2021 tracking just 4% behind pre-pandemic levels.
Denis Villenueve’s Dune easily topped the charts with a second weekend of $15.5 million, pushing the first half of the filmmaker’s two-part epic closer to a worldwide tally of $300 million, as per Deadline. The bad news is that the outlet reports that it was also the most pirated title of the week, so it might not have much legs left with paying customers.
Halloween Kills held onto second place, and it was always going to be the movie audiences would gravitate towards given the name recognition of the franchise and proximity to the titular occasion, so it ended up comfortably seeing off the challenge of Edgar Wright’s psychological thriller Last Night in Soho and Scott Cooper’s supernatural chiller Antlers.
The good news is that we’ll be getting a bumper frame next week with the release of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Eternals, which is still tracking in the $80 million range despite reviews that could be described as tepid at best, but Warner Bros. will be happy enough with a second straight victory for Dune.
