Black Phone 2 Tops Global Box Office With $42M Debut

The horror sequel 'Black Phone 2,' directed by Scott Derrickson and starring Ethan Hawke, has achieved a strong box office debut, grossing $42 million worldwide, including $26.5 million domestically, surpassing the original 2021 film's opening weekend. Despite a higher production budget of $30 million, the film's early success and positive word-of-mouth position it well for the Halloween season, contrasting with Blumhouse's recent string of less successful releases. 'Black Phone 2' dominated international markets such as Mexico, the UK, Brazil, Australia, and France, outperforming the first film and other recent horror titles. Meanwhile, Disney's 'Tron: Ares' experienced a significant drop in box office revenue, grossing $11.1 million domestically in its second weekend and totaling $103 million globally against a $180 million production budget, indicating potential losses. The horror genre continues to lead the box office for the 11th weekend this year, with original stories and sequels like 'Black Phone 2' driving audience interest amid a landscape often dominated by reboots and adaptations. Additionally, other releases such as Aziz Ansari's comedy 'Good Fortune' and Paul Thomas Anderson's 'One Battle After Another' showed moderate box office performances.