In a bit of a surprise, Focus Features/Amblin’s Come Play scared up enough business over the Halloween weekend to land atop the box office charts in its debut weekend with $3.1M. Per Deadline, the pic received a +18% boost over Friday on Saturday night, collecting $1.3M compared to its $1.1M opening day haul. The Jacob Chase horror film starring Azhy Robertson, Gillian Jacobs and John Gallagher Jr. played strongly Dallas, New York and Sacramento, though its #1 hard-top theater gross belonged to the AMC Orange in California.
Not bad for a flick that generated just 51% positive critical reviews, per Rotten Tomatoes. Audiences were kinder with 60% giving it a positive score.
Meanwhile, Honest Thief dropped to No. 2 in its fourth weekend of release with $1.35M, $9.5M total, followed by War with Grandpa ($1.08M, $11.3M total), Christopher Nolan’s Tenet ($885K, $53.8M total) and The Empty Man ($561K, $2.2M total).
The only other new release in the Top 10 was the horror film Spell, starring Omari Hardwick, Loretta Devine and Lorraine Burroughs, which collected $210K from 369 locations.
