Halloween Kills Scores $4.9 Million in Preview Screenings

A year after its intended theatrical release, Halloween Kills has finally been unleashed in theaters, with Deadline reporting that the film took in $4.85 million in Thursday night preview screenings. Based on these numbers, the film looks to have an opening weekend somewhere in the $30-million range. This is a major drop compared to its predecessor, as 2018's Halloween took in $7.7 million in preview screenings on its way to an opening weekend of $76.2 million. However, Halloween Kills fared slightly better than A Quiet Place Part II earlier this year, which took in $4.8 million in preview numbers.

As with all movies released since the pandemic started in March of 2020, the release of Halloween Kills comes with a number of qualifiers. One of the biggest factors in this film's box office is the fact that Peacock subscribers have access to Halloween Kills as of today, with Thursday night being the only night in which it was exclusive to theaters. Additionally, despite the distribution of vaccinations, not all theatergoers feel safe returning to screenings.

When comparing Kills to the 2018 film, the latter marked the first collaboration between original director John Carpenter, who served as a producer and composer, and star Jamie Lee Curtis since 1981's Halloween II, in which Curtis starred and Carpenter co-wrote alongside Debra Hill. As if the anticipation of this reunion wasn't exciting enough for fans, the critical responses to the previous film were also much stronger, which sits at 79% positive reviews on aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes as compared to Kills' 45% positive reviews.

The new film is described, "Minutes after Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis), her daughter Karen (Judy Greer) and granddaughter Allyson (Andi Matichak) left masked monster Michael Myers caged and burning in Laurie's basement, Laurie is rushed to the hospital with life-threatening injuries, believing she finally killed her lifelong tormentor. But when Michael manages to free himself from Laurie's trap, his ritual bloodbath resumes. As Laurie fights her pain and prepares to defend herself against him, she inspires all of Haddonfield to rise up against their unstoppable monster. The Strode women join a group of other survivors of Michael's first rampage who decide to take matters into their own hands, forming a vigilante mob that sets out to hunt Michael down, once and for all."

Halloween Kills is now in theaters and streaming on Peacock.

Will you be checking out the film? Let us know in the comments below or contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter to talk all things horror and Star Wars!