By Ben Miller
Don't let the haters tell you that movie stars don't matter. The Dwayne Johnson led DC entry Black Adam easily won the weekend with $67 million. That's Johnson's biggest opening for a film without the words Fast, Furious, or Mummy. George Clooney & Julia Roberts counterprogramming rom-com Ticket to Paradise did just fine for itself with a $16.5 million opening. Those two films expect to have some legs as there are no big openings release until Black Panther: Wakanda Forever on November 11th. And there are only 8 movies in wide release at that. The theaters need more movies...
| Weekend Box Office (actuals) October 21st-23rd 🔺 = new or expanding / ★ = Recommended links if we've written about it |
|
| WIDE (OVER 800 SCREENS) | LIMITED / PLATFORM |
 BLACK ADAM |
 TRIANGLE OF SADNESS |
| 1 🔺 BLACK ADAM $67 *NEW* | 1 TERRIFIER 2 $1.76 (cum. $5.1) 755 screens |
| 2 🔺 TICKET TO PARADISE $16.5 *NEW* | 2 🔺 ★ TRIANGLE OF SADNESS (sweden/uk) $601k (cum. $1.4) 280 screens |
| 3 SMILE $8.47 (cum. $84.4) | 3 🔺 ★ TÁR $500k (cum. $1.2) 141 screens |
| 4 HALLOWEEN ENDS $8 (cum. $54.2) | 4 🔺 ★ TILL $363k (cum. $653k) 16 screens |
| 5 LYLE LYLE CROCODILE $4.25 (cum. $28.8) | 5 ★ DECISION TO LEAVE (south korea) $296k (cum. $437k) 48 screens |
| 6 ★ THE WOMAN KING $1.87 (cum. $62.8) |
6 🔺 ★ THE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN $184k *NEW* 4 screens |
 THE WOMAN KING |
 THE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN |
|
7 DON'T WORRY DARLING $2.2 (cum. $42.4 |
7 🔺 PAUL'S PROMISE $140k *NEW* 396 screens |
| 8 AMSTERDAM $824k (cum. $13.9) |
8 🔺★ AFTERSUN $66k *NEW* 4 screens |
| 9 ★ MOONAGE DAYDREAM (doc) $41k (cum. $4.152) 86 screens | |
| 10 🔺 THE DIVINE PROTECTOR: MASTER SALT BEGINS $13.5k *NEW* 9 screens | |
| 11 LUMPIA WITH A VENGEANCE $11.8k (cum. $72.7k) 23 screens | |
| *there are only 8 movies currently in wide release | 12 CAT DADDIES (doc) $9.7k (cum. $24.3k) |
On the limited/platform side, gorefest Terrifier 2 continues to make a ton of money against a $250k budget. It's already made 20x its budget, and it's expanding to 1000+ theaters next weekend. Martin McDonagh's The Banshees of Inisherin was the per-theater champ with a $46k average on just four screens. Most of the Oscar hopefuls in limited release are doing well as awards season looms. Banshees expands Friday alongside fellow Oscar-hopeful Till.
What did you watch this weekend? I stayed in a scary movie mood with a rewatch of The Shining. I also had a pair of Oscar-winning first-time watches with The Song of Bernadette and Terms of Endearment.