Since A) I’m in Ohio until Tuesday for family stuff, B) today is Halloween (and my father’s 81st birthday), C) there isn’t much Friday box office news, D) and the weekend will be topped by a not-so-terrifying documentary…I’m re-upping (and rewriting as applicable) a piece I penned on this day in 2020, in which I looked at less conventional box office champions that scored in movie theaters over the weekend that’s stereotypically dominated by horror flicks.
Bemusingly, I predicated that piece on the incorrect assumption that Liam Neeson’s Honest Thief would outgross Jacob Chase’s Come Play, but I digress. While there is usually at least one horror movie in play on this final weekend of October, as in 2026 with Clayface, Other Mommy and Resident Evil accounting for three of the top ten grossers, said fright flick wasn’t always king or queen of the proverbial Halloween weekend mountain.If you’re wondering why no big-deal fright flicks are debuting this weekend (all due respect to Christmas with the Kringles), it’s partly because Hollywood often opens a big fright flick a week (or two) before Halloween to use the holiday to buffer post-debut legs.
Think Clayface this year, Ouija in 2014, The Ring in 2002 and the first four Paranormal Activity films. It’s little different from Dear John or Heart Eyes opening before Valentine’s Day weekend. Or, obviously, Mother’s Day opening the weekend before Mother’s Day weekend. So, just for fun, here are eight of the least likely chart-topping movies from the last 42 years of Halloween nights (including this weekend’s champion).
