Tim Burton‘s Beetlejuice Beetlejuice put up some big numbers at the box office last weekend, very nearly breaking the September debut record set by Andy Muschietti’s IT: Chapter One in 2017, and there are signs showing that it will continue to be a significant presence in the domestic chart for at least the rest of the month. The film took a dip in its second Friday-to-Sunday, but it’s still performing well.
Check out the full Top 10 – taking particular notice of the battle between Beetlejuice Beetlejuice and James Watkins’ Speak No Evil – and join me after for analysis.
| TITLE | WEEKEND GROSS | DOMESTIC GROSS | LW | THTRS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice | $51,600,000 | $188,006,000 | 1 | 3,630 |
| 2. Speak No Evil | $11,500,000 | $11,500,000 | N/A | 3,120 |
| 3. Deadpool & Wolverine | $5,200,000 | $621,495,644 | 2 | 3,551 |
| 4. Am I Racist?* | $4,750,000 | $4,750,000 | N/A | 2,754 |
| 5. Reagan | $2,964,040 | $23,300,120 | 3 | 2,770 |
| 6. The Killer’s Game* | $2,600,000 | $2,600,000 | N/A | 3,005 |
| 7. Alien: Romulus | $2,400,000 | $101,276,041 | 4 | 3,067 |
| 8. It Ends With Us | $2,025,000 | $144,878,000 | 5 | 1,921 |
| 9. The Forge | $2,010,000 | $24,104,000 | 6 | 2,698 |
| 10. God’s Not Dead: In God We Trust* | $1,466,812 | $266,39$1,827,0000,000 | N/A | 3,003 |
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice Box Office Numbers Take A Dip, But The Film Holds On To First Place
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice didn’t exactly have a second weekend that will be going down in the books as particularly memorable. Compared to the same stretch of time last week, the long-awaited sequel saw ticket sales fall 54 percent, which is higher than a studio wants to see, but also not atypical in the modern market. What’s important to keep in mind, however, is that the horror comedy just had what was the third best debut of 2024 thus far ($111 million), and 46 percent of that number is still a pretty nice chunk of change.
Easily wining its second box office crown, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice added $51.6 million to its domestic gross in the last three days – bringing that total number up to $188 million (according to The Numbers). After just a little over a week in theaters, that means it is already the ninth most successful film in the United States and Canada so far this year, having already made more than big titles like Wes Ball’s Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes ($171.1 million), Justin Baldoni’s It Ends With Us ($144.9 million) and Michael Sarnoski’s A Quiet Place: Day One ($138.9 million).
In a few days, the film will likely move three more spots up that list, as it only needs to make $8 million more to surpass Adam Wingard‘s Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire ($196.4 million), Mike Mitchell’s Kung Fu Panda 4 ($193.6 million) and Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah’s Bad Boys: Ride Or Die ($171.1 million)
It probably goes without saying that it’s not really fair to compare the box office success of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice against its predecessor, as there’s not only inflation to consider, but also years and years of hype and cult movie love that’s not reflected in big screen numbers.
The new release is clearly a big hit domestically, but it’s not quite getting as much love overseas. Thus far, the movie has made $36 million outside the United States and Canada, accounting for only about 16 percent of the worldwide gross. Still, the success of the film in North America has been significant enough for the Tim Burton movie to move into the Top 20 worldwide rankings for 2024, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice having now made more money than Gil Kenan’s Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire ($200.8 million).
Whether or not the film will hold on to its spot at the box office next week with three new titles set to come out in wide release will be something to check in on come next Sunday.
Speak No Evil Already Set To Be Spooky Season’s First Low Budget Horror Box Office Win
Given the nine-figure success of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice last weekend, there was basically no chance that Speak No Evil was going to end up being the new number one release domestically… but we have to remember that spooky season has begun, and there is a growing hunger for new horror movies. The James Watkins-directed remake of the Danish film of the same name from 2022 was served to help further feed that appetite this weekend, and it will be reflected upon as a success despite it barely only making eight figures.
Why? If I were to remind you that it’s a Blumhouse production, would that help make the picture a bit clearer? The horror-centric studio known for keeping costs low made Speak No Evil with a pre-marketing budget of $15 million (per The Hollywood Reporter). When one factors in that the film has already made $9.3 million overseas, bringing its worldwide ticket sales to $20.8 million, it’s already well on its way to being profitable after just three days.
Of course, Speak No Evil is a title that is going to need to make all of its money early in its run, because, as noted, we are now in spooky season, and that means a whole lot of direct competition arriving in the next few weeks. The film has earned some positive marks from critics thanks to James McAvoy’s performance, but Friday will see the arrival of both Coralie Fargeat’s body horror extravaganza The Substance starring Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley, and Alexandre Aja’s freaky Never Let Go starring Halle Berry.
Alien: Romulus Crosses $100 Million Domestically – Just The Second Movie In The Franchise To Hit That Milestone
Keeping on the subject of genre movies currently playing in theaters, I’ll close out this box office report highlighting the latest box office achievement by Fede Álvarez’s Alien: Romulus. The film only ended up sitting in the Number One spot of the domestic chart for one weekend last month, successfully dethroning Shawn Levy‘s Deadpool & Wolverine, but it has been performing well since it hit the big screen in the middle of August, and now it has crossed a notable milestone.
Alien: Romulus has become just the fifteenth domestic release of 2024 to earn over $100 million domestically – but what’s even more special is that it’s just the second title in the Alien franchise to bring in nine figures domestically. The only other title to do it was Ridley Scott‘s Prometheus in 2012, and that blockbuster made $126.5 million before it was done with its run. Scott’s prequel ultimately made $402.4 million worldwide, while Álvarez’s latest has made $330.7 million to date.
That brings us to the end of this weekend’s box office report, but be sure to head here to CinemaBlend next Sunday to see how the titles playing in theaters not only deal with the arrival of the aforementioned The Substance and Never Let Go, but also Josh Cooley’s animated prequel Transformers One. To learn about all of the films heading to theaters in the weeks and months ahead, check out our 2024 Movie Release Calendar.