As October continues to be dominated by Taylor Swift and Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour, the first movie in four years from Oscar-winning filmmaker Martin Scorsese, Killers of the Flower Moon, hit theaters nationwide courtesy of Apple and its distribution partner (for this movie), Paramount Pictures.
Reuniting Scorsese with Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro and raising awareness for Indigenous actor, Lily Gladstone, Killers was adapted from David Grann‘s best-selling novel, and it was one of the few movies to hold its ground once the (now-record-setting) Swift concert movie was announced in late August.
Killers came into the weekend with fantastic reviews going all the way back to its premiere in May at the Cannes Film Festival, but it also sported a 3 1/2-hour run time that was going to limit the number of showings per screen, especially in premium formats like IMAX.
Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour still came out on top on Friday with $10.4 million after reopening on Thursday for its unconventional four-day week, and adding a further $6 million to last weekend’s $92.8 million opening. Over the weekend, the movie made $33.2 million, bringing its domestic total to $132 million, but now, screenings go dark again until this coming Thursday. UPDATE: The Eras Tour took in another $16.1 million overseas this weekend for an international total of $46.7 million and $178.7 million global gross.
Killers made $9.4 million on Friday, but that also included $2.6 million from Thursday previews, and ultimately, Scorsese’s latest brought in an estimated $23 million its opening weekend. It also received a strong “A-” CinemaScore from the audience polling site, the same rating received for Scorsese classics like Goodfellas and the Oscar Best Picture winner, The Departed. That is also Scorsese’s third-best theatrical opening, after Shutter Island‘s $41 million opening in 2010 and The Departed‘s $26.9 million opening in 2006.
Killers made another $21 million overseas for a global opening of $44 million, all of which is a great start for the movie’s continuing Oscar run.
David Gordon Green‘s reboot-sequel, The Exorcist: Believer, dropped to third place with $5.6 million, down 49% in its third weekend with $54.2 million grossed domestically. It passed the $100 million mark worldwide, adding another $8.2 million overseas this weekend for an international total of $53.4 million and global cume of $107.6 million.
That was followed in fourth place by Paramount’s animated PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie, which added another $4.5 million to its domestic take of $56.1 million.
Disney has already had success with its recent 30th anniversary re-release of Hocus Pocus, and it did even better with its 30th Anniversary re-release of Tim Burton‘s The Nightmare Before Christmas, which it released into 1,650 theaters nationwide. The re-release opened in third place on Friday with $1.5 million but ended up in fifth place for the weekend with $4.1 million. That’s almost as much as the $4.3 million that Hocus Pocus made since opening three weeks ago, adding another $600,000 this weekend in 1,375 theaters to fall just outside the top 10.
Continuing the spooky stuff, Lionsgate‘s horror sequel, Saw X, had a reasonable 37% drop in its fourth weekend for a sixth place showing of $3.6 million and $47.2 million after roughly a month in theaters.
Gareth Edwards‘ sci-fi epic, The Creator, was right behind it in seventh place with $2.6 million and $36.8 million grossed in North America. It’s done better overseas where it’s grossed $53.6 million, adding another $4.1 million this weekend to bring its global total to $90.4 million.
Kenneth Branagh‘s A Haunting in Venice took eighth place with $1.1 million, down 44% from last weekend, bringing its domestic total to $40.9 million.
Sony Pictures Classics released Maryam Keshavarz‘s Sundance award-winning The Persian Version into nine theaters in select cities where it brought in $87,372, averaging $9.7k per location.
Universal and DreamWorks Animation released the animated sequel, Trolls Band Together, into overseas markets last weekend, and this weekend, it added 21 further markets, including the UK & Ireland, Brazil, Fance, Germany, and more. It added another $14.3 million in 4,300 locations, with the UK & Ireland bringing in $4 million and Brazil opening with $2.6 million. It has grossed $16 million internationally so far, but it doesn’t open in North America until Nov. 17.
| Rank | Entry | Distributor | Revenue | Theater Count | Total Revenue |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | TAYLOR SWIFT | THE ERAS TOUR | AMC Theatres Distribution | $33,209,039 | 3,855 | $131,997,540 |
| 2 | Killers of the Flower Moon | Paramount Pictures | $23,253,655 | 3,628 | $23,253,655 |
| 3 | The Exorcist: Believer | Universal | $5,698,965 | 3,323 | $54,300,915 |
| 4 | PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie | Paramount Pictures | $4,422,750 | 3,364 | $56,036,877 |
| 5 | The Nightmare Before Christmas | Walt Disney | $4,292,207 | 1,650 | $81,647,367 |
| 6 | Saw X | Lionsgate | $3,604,551 | 2,756 | $47,254,428 |
| 7 | The Creator | 20th Century Studios | $2,682,324 | 2,490 | $36,841,611 |
| 8 | A Haunting in Venice | 20th Century Studios | $1,143,194 | 1,600 | $40,951,787 |
| 9 | The Blind | Fathom Events | $1,005,022 | 1,049 | $15,641,206 |
| 10 | The Nun II | Warner Bros. | $880,565 | 1,364 | $85,301,636 |
