“Halloween” Scores Second-Best Box Office October Opening Ever

Halloween is officially killing it. 

The reboot of the horror franchise earned $77.5 million after opening in almost 4,000 locations in North America. This means that the film has earned the impressive second-best start for an R-rated horror film being It’s. The sequel to John Carpenter’s 1978 classic has also scored the second-highest October opening ever, behind Venom’s $80.3 million earlier this month.

Overseas, Halloween generated $14.3 million this weekend.

The film helmed by Jason Blum and Blumhouse Productions ignores the nine other remakes and picks up 40 years later, with Jamie Lee Curtis’s Laurie Strode preparing for her inevitable rematch with masked killer Michael Myers, played by James Jude Courtney.

“I am enormously proud of this film,” Blum said in a statement. “Halloween brings the franchise back to life in a fresh, relevant and fun way that is winning over fans and critics alike.”

“There had been quite some time between the original film,” Jim Orr, Universal’s president of domestic distribution said. “You combine that with the return of a tremendous star in Jamie Lee Curtis, great writing, great filmmaking. All of that comes together as a perfect storm.”

Rounding out the top five this weekend are A Star Is Born, with about $19.3 million; Venom, with about $18.1 million; Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween, with about $9.7 million; and First Man, with about $8.6 million.