The Halloween series came back with a bang, as the latest reboot opened to a stunning $77.5 million, just $2.5 million behind the October record set by Venom two weeks ago. Meanwhile, The Hate U Give was rather uneventful in its nationwide expansion, while other titles like The Sisters Brothers and The Old Man and the Gun saw mixed results.

Halloween‘s $77.5 million start isn’t just the best opening for the series, it’s also the second highest start for an R rated horror film, the second best start for a film released in October, and is already the fourth highest grossing film in the franchise, even when adjusting for inflation. This is nearly double the $40 million four-day start of Rob Zombie’s Halloween back in 2007. This is also the best start for a Blumhouse film, a record previously held by Split at $40 million. All of this from a budget of just $15 million, which is immensely impressive.

This stunning debut can be chalked up to a number of factors; fans of the original were intrigued by the return of Laurie Strode and a return to form for the franchise, while newcomers were brought in by a marketing campaign that played up the more iconic elements of the original, such as the iconic Myers’ mask and the holiday atmosphere. While many of the recent installments came out in the summer, this made the intelligent decision to release in mid October. There hasn’t been a successful horror film since The Nun back in the beginning of September, giving this plenty of room to breathe. In terms of where it will go from here, however, it’s hard to say; the film dropped 18% on Friday – not bad for a series which is somewhat notoriously front loaded. On top of that, the Cinemascore was a B+, and without any major competition next weekend, it could potentially hold fairly well. Blumhouse’s current highest grossing title is 2017’s Get Out at $175 million. Whether Halloween can surpass that is up in the air, but it is already a massive success for everyone involved.

The Hate U Give went nationwide after two weeks in limited release, but expanded to the tune of a fairly middling $7.5 million. The $23 million Fox drama likely won’t have too much overseas appeal given its very politically charged nature, but may be able to show strong legs thanks to its A+ Cinemascore. Also expanding nationwide was Fox’s The Old Man and the Gun, which entered 802 theaters with a mediocre $2 million. That translates to a so-so $2.5K per theater average. While that’s not a bad result considering it didn’t exactly have a major marketing campaign, it certainly feels as though Fox maybe jumped the gun on giving this a nationwide release so soon.

The biggest loser of the week was Annapurna’s The Sisters Brothers, which inexplicably decided to expand into 1,141 locations despite losing all momentum in limited release; last weekend, when it was only playing in 129 theaters, it averaged just over $2,000 a site. As a result, it opened to just $742K, for a pathetic per theater average of $650. This will likely result in it losing almost all of these locations next weekend.

Free Solo continued its impressive run as it expanded into 251 locations for a solid $1 million weekend. The Nat Geo climbing doc joins other titles like RBG and Three Identical Strangers, as 2018 continues to prove itself to be one of the most impressive years for documentaries on record.

The biggest release in the specialty market was A24’s mid90s, which opened very well in 4 locations with a $62K average. This is just behind July’s opening of Eighth Grade, which also opened in 4 locations but averaged a few thousand more per site. A24 clearly has confidence in the project, which they’ve already scheduled for an unspecified nationwide expansion next weekend. That may or may not be the best idea, as reviews haven’t been on par with their more successful titles (currently sitting at a 79% on Rotten Tomatoes), and whether or not the indie drama has enough momentum to justify such an expansion is questionable at best.

Another Fox title also opened this weekend, their true-story drama Can You Ever Forgive Me?, which opened in 5 locations with a $30K average. That’s a pretty good start for a film which will likely do better in nationwide release, as it isn’t the kind of film that specifically appeals to arthouse crowds.

Moving into second, A Star is Born finally topped Venom with an impressive $19.3 million in its third weekend. The music drama is showing impressive staying power, collecting over $126 million thus far. Worldwide, it just surpassed $200 million, a number it may double by the end of its run.

Venom dropped to third, but continued to hold far better than anyone had expected; even with hefty competition from Halloween, it only dropped 48%. With $171 million after 17 days, the Sony pic should cross the $200 million mark fairly soon.

Among other holdovers, First Man failed to save face falling 46%, raising its domestic total to just under $30 million after ten days of release. Bad Times at the El Royale didn’t fall quite as hard as I expected, yet still bled out 54% with just $13.3 million in the bank after ten days – less than The Cabin in the Woods made on its opening weekend.