Halloween weekend is supposed to be a box-office bloodbath. The kind where horror movies slash records and spooky blockbusters haunt the charts. But this year, the ghosts weren’t in the theatres, they were the theatre’s themselves. Because despite topping the weekend, Regretting You just presided over the weakest Halloween box office in more than three decades.
Let that sink in, yes, thirty-one years. The last time a Halloween weekend did numbers this low, VHS was still the dominant home entertainment format. This year? A romantic drama pulled in $8.1 million and somehow claimed the crown. It’s the kind of bittersweet victory where you win the battle, but the battlefield’s on fire. The film, based on Colleen Hoover’s popular novel and starring Blake Lively, muscled its way into first place across 3,245 theatres according to THR. But “muscle” might be too generous. This wasn’t a power play, it was a quiet stumble over the finish line. In any other year, that kind of opening would be buried under a wave of horror titles or franchise juggernauts. But this Halloween, the field was barren. No Michael Myers, no Exorcist, no Five Nights at Freddy’s sequel to draw in the crowds.
Instead, audiences opted for Netflix, sports, or simply staying home, which is clearly visible from the numbers. According to Comscore data, total domestic box office revenue for the weekend barely scraped $50 million. To put that in perspective, that’s less than what Five Nights at Freddy’s alone made last year during the same frame.
It’s not that Regretting You is a bad film, in fact it’s far from it. But it’s a movie built on emotional weight and quiet heartbreak, not jump scares or adrenaline. It’s the cinematic equivalent of showing up to a costume party in a cardigan. Charming? Sure. Seasonally appropriate? Not so much.
This year’s theatrical lineup just didn’t give audiences a reason to put on real pants and leave the house. Horror fans were left empty-handed, families had already binged The Addams Family and Hocus Pocus, and even the die-hard moviegoers seemed to take the weekend off. The result? A chilling milestone Hollywood didn’t see coming, or possibly one it chose to ignore until the lights dimmed too low.
Compare this to the old days of Scream, Paranormal Activity, Saw, Halloween (2018), all carving out their box-office dominance in late October. They weren’t just movies, they were events audiences yearned for. Regretting You, as much as it might tug the heartstrings, isn’t an event. It’s a soft-spoken drama trying to fill a void meant for ghosts and monsters.
But let’s give credit where it is due, Regretting You did manage to find an audience. Its connection to Hoover’s massive fanbase gave it a foundation, and the film’s marketing leaned into the author’s loyal readership. But even with all that goodwill, the numbers tell a story Hollywood doesn’t want to hear, one where the theatrical calendar feels increasingly off-balance.
The real horror this Halloween wasn’t on screen. It was in the spreadsheets. Ticket sales remain sluggish, and studios are struggling to find the right rhythm post-pandemic. When a heartfelt romance ends up leading the box office during spooky season, not because it’s a breakout, but because there was simply nothing else to challenge it. And if you ask me, that’s less a win, and more a warning shot.
The message is clear. Audiences aren’t done with theatres, but they’re being pickier than ever. If Hollywood wants to bring them back, it’ll need to rediscover the thrill of timing, because this Halloween, the only thing that got murdered was the weekend’s revenue.
