【Caged Women】

Just over a year ago,Caged Women the adaptation of Stephen King's Itshook horror fandom with a $123.4 million opening weekend -- the highest ever for a horror movie. Now Halloweenis here to join the party.

The 40-years-later sequel that opened on Friday picked up an estimated $77.5 million in the U.S. during its opening weekend. That's not quite Itlevels of success, but it's more than enough to make Halloween's first three days the second highest for an R-rated horror movie.

In an amusing twist, Halloween's ascendance to that #2 spot effectively unseats the previous box office runner-up, The Nun, which opened in September just a day before the one-year anniversary of It's release. Horror, in case you haven't noticed, is very "in" right now.

Halloweenalso fell shy of breaking another record: Top October box office of all time.

Prior to 2018, that distinction went to Gravity, the Sandra Bullock-starring outer space thriller that opened with $55.8 million. It was Venomthat swooped in earlier this October to set a new record, with an $80.3 million opening. Just ahead of Halloween.

It was nonetheless a great start for the sequel, which brings back Jamie Lee Curtis, star of the original, for a modern-day face-off with Michael Myers. Halloweenis, by most accounts, a great movie -- horror or otherwise -- and one that smartly uses humor to offset the big scare moments.

All box office data provided by comScore and Box Office Mojo.

(Editor: {typename type="name"/})