'Halloween Kills' Soars, 007 Stumbles At Weekend Box Office

“Halloween Kills,” the 12th installment in the horror film franchise that began with the 1978 classic “Halloween,” topped the U.S. box office this weekend, easily dethroning another long-running franchise, the 007 epic “No Time to Die,” to become the nation’s most popular theatrical attraction.

What Happened: “Halloween Kills” grossed $50.4 million in U.S. ticket sales for its opening weekend, far ahead of the $24.3 million absorbed by “No Time to Die,” which opened last weekend with $56 million in ticket sales. But Comcast’s CMCSA Universal Pictures simultaneously released “Halloween Kills” in 3,705 theaters and on its Peacock streaming service, whereas United Artists Releasing put “No Time to Die” into an exclusive theatrical release on 4,407 screens.

Sony’s SONY “Venom: Let There Be Carnage” ranked third at the box office for its third week in release, with $16.5 million in ticket sales from 4,013, while United Artists Releasing’s animated “Addams Family 2” ranked fourth with $7.2 million from 3,607 screens.

A Flop And Three Surprises: The weekend’s biggest dud was Ridley Scott’s “The Last Duel,” released by The Walt Disney Co.’s DIS 20th Century Studios unit, which premiered with a weak $4.8 million in ticket sales from 3,065 theaters, despite the star power of Ben Affleck, Adam Driver and Matt Damon on its marquee. The poor performance of “The Last Duel” is the second underperforming film for Damon this year, following the commercial flop of “Stillwater” during the summer from Comcast’s Focus Features.

On the other hand, the major surprise over the weekend was the presence of three foreign-language films among the top 10 releases in the U.S. The Icelandic horror film “Lamb” from A24 brought in $543,000 from 865 theaters in its second week in release, while a pair of Indian films in limited release also generated cash register ka-chings: “Honsla Rakh” grossed $706,000 from 100 screens and “Most Eligible Bachelor” took in $470,000 from 195 theaters.

What Happens Next: The upcoming weekend is one of the busiest since the pandemic-era theaters have reopened, with five major films coming out. The most anticipated title is the science-fiction epic “Dune,” which has already scored with multiple international audiences.

However, AT&T’s T Warner Bros. is simultaneously releasing “Dune” in theaters and on HBO Max, over the angry objections of director Denis Villeneuve. With a higher than normal volume of new films coming out, along with several popular titles still in general release, there is a possibility that moviegoers will seek out theatrical-exclusive movies and save “Dune” for home viewing.

“Dune” star Timothée Chalamet is competing against himself this coming weekend – the young actor plays a student revolutionary during the 1968 Parisian riots in Wes Anderson’s comedy "The French Dispatch," which is being released by Disney’s Searchlight division. Anderson’s film has one of the largest all-star casts in recent years, including six Academy Award winners – Adrien Brody, Benicio del Toro, Anjelica Huston, Frances McDormand, Tilda Swinton and Christoph Waltz – plus Bill Murray, Owen Wilson, Willem Dafoe, Saoirse Ronan and Henry Winkler.

Disney is also represented in the coming weekend with the computer animated feature “Ron’s Gone Wrong” from its 20th Century Animation division. Two theatrical releases are playing on the big screen ahead of their home-viewing presentations: Amazon.com’s (NASDAQ) Amazon Studios is presenting Benedict Cumberbatch in “The Electrical Life of Louis Swain” ahead of its Nov. 6 premiere on Prime Video, while Netflix NFLX is offering Idris Elba and Jonathan Majors in the Western “The Harder They Fall” in advance of its Nov. 3 streaming debut.

Dueling Catwomen: Gotham City will be facing two different versions of Catwoman for films slated to premiere in early 2022. DC Comics unit is offering an animated "Catwoman: Hunted," with Elizabeth Gillies doing the voice performance of the jewel-pilfering Selina Kyle. This film, which includes Stephanie Beatriz as the voice of Batwoman, is scheduled for a Feb. 8 release, although the film is going straight into home entertainment channels and will not be seen on the big screen.

Zoë Kravitz is playing a live-action version of Catwoman in Warner Bros.' "The Batman," with Robert Pattinson in the title role and a starry cast that includes Colin Farrell as The Penguin and Paul Dano as The Riddler. This film is opening in theaters on March 4.

Photo: Universal Pictures.