Jamie Lee Curtis Boasts About ‘Halloween’ Opening Weekend Box Office

Original scream queen Jamie Lee Curtis, who returns as Laurie Strode in the newest Halloween, took [...]

By Cameron Bonomolo

Original scream queen Jamie Lee Curtis, who returns as Laurie Strode in the newest Halloween, took to Twitter Sunday to celebrate the opening weekend success of her latest horror hit.

"I'm going for one BOAST post," Curtis, 59, wrote. "Biggest horror movie opening with a female lead. Biggest movie opening with a female lead over 55. Second biggest October movie opening ever. Biggest Halloween opening ever."

The 40-years-later sequel to John Carpenter's 1978 original, where Curtis made her big screen debut, Halloween carved up a $77.5 million opening, giving producer Blumhouse its latest horror hit. This second-biggest October opening weekend is just behind Sony's Venom, which emerged as the best-ever for the month just weeks ago at $80.2 million.

Those numbers are a franchise best for Halloween: its last series installment, Rob Zombie's reboot sequel Halloween II, opened to $16.3m in 2009 before going on to gross just $39.4m worldwide in its entire lifespan.

Halloween marks Curtis' first return to the franchise since 1998's Halloween H20: Twenty Years Later, where she also played an older Laurie Strode still haunted and traumatized by masked murderer Michael Myers. Both Curtis and Carpenter serve as producers on the series revival, which discounts every other entry except the original film.

According to Deadline, the David Gordon Green-directed slasher had a 53%-47% male-to-female demographic, with 72% of moviegoers under 35 years old and the largest quad being between the ages of 25—34 at 32%. 41% of viewers were under age 25.

"They're not going to come to me with a new idea for something at 60. It's not impossible, it's unlikely. You know what? I've been an unemployed actor for the great part of my career," she said.

"Honestly, if you boiled down how many days I have been employed as an actor, compared to how many days I've been unemployed as an actor, it would shock you. It would turn your hair grey. Because I'm a freelance up-for-grabs unemployed actor, today.

"Nobody's paying me. I'm not being paid to be here [doing interviews]. I have bills to pay at home. It's just what happens. I was perfectly happy not doing whatever I was not doing when the phone rang and David Gordon Green called me."

Curtis reportedly entered into a profit-participation agreement with Blumhouse that would see her earn potentially $10 million for her involvement with Halloween. She was paid $8,000 for her role in the first movie, an indie film that cost roughly $325,000.

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