This Halloween weekend was an especially slow one at the national box office. Despite a couple of enticing new offerings, the leaders of the charts were holdovers from previous weekends, none of which performed exceedingly well within the frame.

While previous years have seen synchronous horror hits, uniquely able to tap into the spooky season’s culmination and get a real second wind thanks to All Hallows’ Eve, this year saw no such luck.

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TOP 5

5. Back to the Future: $4.7 million

The iconic 1985 film Back to the Future — directed by Robert Zemeckis and produced by Steven Spielberg — saw a wide re-release this weekend, including IMAX screenings. The move feels like a clear attempt to replicate the success of another Spielberg-connected reissue earlier this year, when Jaws made a much bigger splash at the box office back in August.

While Back to the Future is undeniably a classic, releasing it on Halloween weekend feels like an odd choice. I love Zemeckis’ time-travel masterpiece as much as anyone, but October 31st only comes once a year — and it’s tough to justify skipping seasonal horror favorites for a sci-fi adventure. Had Universal waited just a few more weeks, I’m confident the turnout would’ve been stronger.

Still, with a $4.7 million haul, the re-release performed well enough to land in the weekend’s top five.

4. Bugonia: $4.8 million

Yorgos Lanthimos isn’t a filmmaker chasing blockbuster appeal, but he’s consistently taking absolutely gonzo swings from within the studio system — and that fucking rules. Sure, the studios behind Bugonia probably hoped for a stronger immediate return on their $45 million investment, but no one expected this to be a box office juggernaut. There’s still plenty of time for it to find its audience and recoup that total.

The film is already generating major awards buzz — and rightfully so, because it’s incredible. Between that growing momentum, the slow march toward awards season, and the high-profile talent involved, Bugonia will end up being worth far more than its initial budget.

3. Chainsaw Man — The Movie: Reze Arc: $6 Million

Anime has been having one helluva year at the cinema, and Chainsaw Man is just the latest example of that. While certainly not the runaway, jaw-dropping success of the Demon Slayer movie earlier this year, which made $70 million in its opening weekend, Chainsaw Man is doing great in its own right.

The film opened to a very respectable $18 million in its opening weekend and has continued to rake in profits ever since, so an undisputed victory for the film and franchise.

2. Black Phone 2: $8 million

After opening to nearly $30 million two weeks ago, Scott Derrickson’s The Black Phone 2 has continued to perform exceedingly well — and very deservedly so. It’s one of the few major horror releases this month, and it’s an absolute hoot to experience with a crowd.

Given that, it’s no surprise the supernatural slasher sequel has remained a dominant box office force heading into Halloween. I would’ve loved to see it climb even higher this weekend, but The Black Phone 2 still stands as Blumhouse’s biggest hit of the year — and that’s a victory all its own.

1. Regretting You: $8.1 million

In a surprising twist, the weekend’s highest-grossing film was actually the new Colleen Hoover adaptation, Regretting You. The movie brought in $13.7 million in its opening weekend, despite harsh reviews and being, by most accounts, a generally unpleasant watch. Yet its core audience clearly didn’t mind what they saw, as the film continued to perform exceptionally well this weekend.

Interestingly, Regretting You stars Mason Thames, who also played the male lead in The Black Phone 2. This makes him the first actor in over thirty years to lead three different films (How to Train Your Dragon, Black Phone 2, and now Regretting You) that each debuted at number one within the same year — a remarkable feat for someone so young.

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