Weekend Box Office: 'Happy Death Day' No. 1 With $26.5M, Another Win for Horror

'The Foreigner,' 'Marshall' and 'Professor Marston and the Wonder Women' also opened nationwide.

Getting an early jump on Halloween, Universal and Blumhouse's Happy Death Day opened over the weekend to a strong $26.5 million from 3,149 theaters in another win for the horror genre.

The microbudgeted pic, directed by Christopher Landon and rated PG-13, stars Jessica Rothe as a college student who relives the day of her murder over and over until she discovers her killer's identity. Happy Death Day cost a mere $5 million to produce, and follows the success of Universal and Blumhouse's other 2017 titles, Get Out and Split.

Happy Death Day skewed female (54 percent), while young moviegoers turned out in droves to see the horror-thriller. More than 65 percent of ticket buyers were under the age of 25. Overseas, the movie opened to $5 million from its first 11 markets for a global bow of $31.5 million.

In North America, Happy Death Day easily trounced holdover Blade Runner 2049, which declined 54 percent to $15.1 million in its second weekend for an early domestic cume of $60.6 million. The Alcon Entertainment, Sony and Warner Bros. movie cost a net $150 million to produce, so it has a long way to before landing in the black.

Overseas, Blade Runner 2049 took in another $29.3 million for a foreign tally of $98 million and a global cume of $158.6 million to date. If Sunday estimates are correct, it narrowly lost the foreign box-office crown to Chinese hit Never Say Die, which grossed $30 million in China for a total $278 million. Blade Runner 2049 doesn't open in China and Japan until Oct. 27, although it debuted to a soft $1.7 million in South Korea over the weekend. (By way of comparison, recent Hollywood event pic Kingsman: The Golden Circle debuted to nearly $17 million in South Korea.)

STXfilms’ action-thriller The Foreigner placed No. 3 domestically with $12.8 million from 2,515 theaters. That's a solid start for a film that cost a reported $35 million to make and has already earned more than $88 million internationally.

The Martin Campbell-directed movie, which nabbed an A- CinemaScore, stars Jackie Chan as a former military operative who comes out of retirement when his teenage daughter is killed in a politically motivated terrorist attack. He is forced into a cat-and-mouse conflict with a British government official (Pierce Brosnan), whose own past may hold clues to the identities of the elusive killers.

New Line Cinema and Warner Bros.' horror blockbuster It came in No. 4 with $6.1 million, while New Line's Annabelle: Creation crossed the $300 million mark at the global box office.

Fox's The Mountain Between Us, starring Idris Elba and Kate Winslet, rounded out the five, dipping 46 percent in its second outing to $5.7 million for a domestic total of $20.5 million.

Marshall and Professor Marston and the Wonder Women, targeting older adults, launched nationwide this weekend, but opted for a far smaller rollout.

Open Road's Marshall placed No. 11 with $3 million from 821 theaters. In the biographical drama, Chadwick Boseman plays Thurgood Marshall, the first African-American Supreme Court justice who, as a young NAACP lawyer, reluctantly teams with a Jewish attorney (Josh Gad) to tackle an oft-forgotten case that helped lay the groundwork for the civil rights movement.

Professor Marston and the Wonder Women came in well behind expectations with just $737,000 from 1,229 theaters for a dismal screen average of $600. Written and directed by Angela Robinson, the real-life drama recounts how an American psychologist created the fictional character Wonder Woman. Luke Evans, Rebecca Hall and Bella Heathcote star. Studio 6 produced the film, with Annapurna picking up domestic rights.

At the specialty box office, Fox Searchlight's A.A. Milne biopic Goodbye Christopher Robin, starring Domhnall Gleeson and Margot Robbie, debuted in nine theaters, grossing $55,800 for a screen average of $6,200.

From Bleecker Street, Andy Serkis’ feature directorial debut, Breathe, starring Andrew Garfield and Claire Foy, earned $26,254 from four theaters for a screen average of $6,564.

Amazon Studios' documentary Human Flow fared far better in terms of location average, grossing $47,000 in its debut in three theaters for a screen average of $15,667.

Among specialty holdovers (and award hopefuls), A24's The Florida Project expanded nicely in its second weekend, earning $401,141 from 33 locations for a screen average of $12,156.

Focus Features' Victoria & Abdul, now playing in 900 theaters, grossed $3.1 million for a domestic total of $11.3 million. Overseas, the biographical royal drama has earned $28.8 million to date for a global cume of $40.1 million.

Battle of the Sexes, from Fox Searchlight, took in another $1.4 million from 1,394 North American theaters for a domestic total of $10.4 million.

Oct. 15, 12 p.m. Updated with foreign numbers.