‘Freaky’ Director Christopher Landon Calls Out Studios For Day-And-Date Releases After ‘Halloween Ends’ Box Office Results

The final film of the David Gordon Green Halloween reboot trilogy has fans of the franchise divided and the director of the slasher is explaining the creative decisions he made for Halloween Ends.

Christopher Landon, the director of the horror movie Freaky, is slamming Hollywood studios for “day-and-date” releases amid the disappointing box office performance of Halloween Ends.

Over the weekend, Blumhouse and Universal released “Halloween Ends,” which earned more than $41 million at the box office. That’s a pretty solid opening for a film that sports a reported budget of only $30 million.

Kourtney Kardashian and her husband, Travis Barker, are no different. The newlyweds celebrated the premiere of , with their own Michael Myers-themed party over the weekend.Kourtney shared several shots of the spooky decorations on her Instagram Stories, starting with the pumpkin-lined path that guarded 15-foot red skeletons, featuring blue glowing eyes that greeted guests as they entered the couple's smoke-filled haunted home.Upon entering the front door, Kourtney captured a more enchanting scene, showing off a slew of carefully placed trees which gave the room a forest-like feel.

In a Twitter thread on Saturday, Landon talked about how “Freaky,” his horror comedy about a teenage girl who switches bodies with a wanted serial killer, was released theatrically in November 2020 during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic but then released as a video-on-demand title less than a month later, in keeping with Universal’s then-newly-signed agreement with major theater chains allowing them to release films on-demand as early as 17 days after theatrical release. “Studios: stop gambling with filmmakers and their movies to try and prop up your fledgling streaming services. This happened to me on Freaky and it destroyed us.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter “Halloween Ends” slayed the box office competition, collecting $41.25 million from 3,901 North American theaters in its opening weekend. The movie had a softer start than expected (projections were closer to $50 million to $55 million) but it’s still impressive considering its simultaneous release on Peacock likely cut into ticket sales. “Halloween Ends” also faced unexpectedly steep competition from Paramount’s creepy thriller “Smile,” which continued its killer run with $12.4 million (a minimal 33% decline) in its third weekend of release. The R-rated “Smile” has grossed $71.1 million in North America to date, a scary-good result since it cost $17 million to produce. At a time when movie theaters have been struggling to bounce back from COVID, horror has been a consistent bright spot.

“Halloween Ends” is only just beginning.The slasher film cut its way to first place at the box office on Friday, earning more than $20 million in theaters.The sequel to last year’s “Halloween Kills” is predicted to take in $43.4 million on its opening weekend, according to Variety.“Smile” was bumped from the top spot this week, moving down a notch to second, after spending two weeks at number one.The flick surpassed earnings of $100 million at the global box office in less than two weeks, as per Collider.The live-action/CGI musical comedy “Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile” swam down to third place, clawing in $2 million. The movie adaption of the popular children’s book series enjoyed a $11.5 million domestic debut on its opening weekend, according to Deadline.“The Woman King” held up her crown, remaining in fourth, with a $1 million-dollar take.

Halloween Ends” is still going to turn a sizable profit with an estimated $43 million opening weekend, but its day-and-date release on Peacock and weak reviews from critics and audiences alike are already having an impact. Prior to release, the final installment in David Gordon Green’s “Halloween” reboot trilogy was projected to open to $50 million, matching the $49.4 million opening of last year’s “Halloween Kills,” which was also a day-and-date release.

franchise in 2018 with a direct sequel to the 1978 film, the ongoing saga between Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) and Michael Myers comes to a close two movies later, in, which is now in theaters and streaming on Peacock. Both Curtis, who has portrayed the former babysitter stalked by the masked killer for over 40 years, and director David Gordon Green break down the climax of the 2022 film that marks Laurie and Michael’s final (and bloody) battle. Curtis “takes the physicality of this role very seriously,” Green says.

“Halloween Ends” is just beginning its rise at the box office.

We said we wouldn’t do it. When we sat down and watched the entire “Halloween” franchise (12 films!) in a week to rank them before “Halloween Ends,” we said we didn’t need to discuss the finale because it was probably going to be just fine and exactly what we expected would happen.

Halloween is a mere two weeks away, but Laurie Strode's decades-long showdown with Michael Myers comes to an end today. The third and final chapter of the modern trilogy, following 2018's  and 2021's , is now playing in theaters and streaming on Peacock. is the thirteenth installment in the franchise in which Jamie Lee Curtis faces off for the last time against the embodiment of evil. Watch NowNearly 45 years after John Carpenter's 1978 original — which you can watch on Amazon here — stars Jamie Lee Curtis as horror’s first “final girl” Laurie Strode. Curtis' portrayal of Laurie for more than four decades is one of the longest actor-character pairings in cinema history.

Independent projections predicted a $50 million opening weekend for the Universal and Blumhouse picture, on par with that of “Halloween Kills.” The 2021 sequel scored $4.9 million at its Thursday box office debut. In 2018, “Halloween” made $7.7 million on its first night and went on to earn an eye-popping $77.5 million from its opening weekend – the second highest of any rated-R horror movie at the time.Set four years after the events of “Halloween Kills,” “Halloween Ends” presents the last showdown between Laurie Strode (Curtis) and longtime nemesis Michael Myers.

Universal’s release of Blumhouse, Miramax and Trancas’ Halloween Ends saw a Thursday night of $5.4M from 3,200 theaters. Showtimes began at 5PM. That figure is +11% from last year’s Halloween Kills‘ previews which were $4.85M.

Rohan Campbell is the breakout star of the new movie Halloween Ends and he’s definitely going to be gaining a bigger fanbase thanks to his role as Corey Cunningham!

If there’s a lesson to be learned from David Gordon Green’s trilogy of “Halloween” legacy-quels, it’s to quit while you’re ahead. His 2018 “Halloween” (a direct sequel to the original 1978 masterpiece and a ret-con of its many, many follow-ups) was a surprisingly effective combination of slasher reanimation and reconsideration, taking the horrors of that Halloween night, and its psychological effects on its survivors and the town where they happened, with uncommon seriousness (yet with flashes of self-awareness and humor).

“Halloween Ends” is here.The sequel — in theaters and on Peacock on Oct. 14 — concludes the trilogy that started with 2018’s “Halloween,” which wisely jettisoned most of the cumbersome backstory and mythology that had gummed up the subsequent sequels and spin-offs.