UPDATE: According to Puck’s Matt Belloni, Paramount “wildly overstated” box office receipts for “Regretting You.” This has resulted in “Black Phone 2” topping the box-office this past weekend.
EARLIER: We’re coming off the lowest-grossing box-office weekend of the year so far. The Friday–Sunday earnings produced an unusually tight race for the top spot, with “Regretting You” ($8.1M) and “Black Phone 2” ($8M) essentially in a dead heat.
So, much to my surprise, it’s been announced that “Black Phone 2,” distributed by Blumhouse, is headed to VOD tomorrow. That’s only 18 days in theaters for this successful mid-budget movie, which just crossed the $100M worldwide mark.
Hell, Netflix has given Guillermo Del Toro’s “Frankenstein” more days in theaters than Blumhouse has for this one. What gives? Final weekend numbers for “Black Phone 2” are supposed to come out later this morning, and it might very well be #1 at the box office.
After a string of duds, Blumhouse finally had a box-office win with “Black Phone 2.” Scott Derrickson’s sequel, made for $30M, has received decent notices (72% on Rotten Tomatoes). Nothing to write home about, but still — it’s not finished with its theatrical run. The first film turned into a surprise sleeper hit, earning $161M worldwide.