“The Black Phone 2 ”continues horror’s winning streak at the 2025 box office with $42 million globally

For the 11th weekend this year so far, horror reigns supreme at the box office.

The Black Phone 2, the sinister sequel to director Scott Derrickson and star Ethan Hawke’s 2021 hit, already surpassed its estimated $30 million budget in its premiere weekend. The supernatural, serial killer thriller featuring a wickedly against-type performance from Hawke grabbed $26.5 million at the domestic box office and $42 million globally, earning the No. 1 spot on both charts.

The success of the The Black Phone 2 bodes well not just for horror, but for original ideas in a production landscape increasingly dominated by reboots, remakes, and adaptations of existing IP — any IP, an even inert children’s toy.

Derrickson’s film is the sixth film to top the box office this year so far, following Sinners, Final Destination: Bloodlines, Weapons, The Conjuring: Last Rites, and the latest entry in Japan’s wildly popular anime franchise, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba- The Movie – Infinity Castle. Compare that to last year, when only three films topped the domestic box office for a week each, compared to 11 weeks this year, with nine still to go. Of that group of six, two (Weapons and Sinners) were spun whole cloth from their creators’ imaginations, with The Black Phone, Final Destination, and The Conjuring follow-ons from franchises that began as original IP.

The Black Phone 2 left bodies in its wake on its way to the top this weekend, Tron: Ares being the most notable victim. The sequel 15 years in the making boasting an ensemble cast of Jared Leto, Greta Lee, Evan Peters, and Gillian Anderson fell 66 percent from its precarious perch atop the box office last weekend, scaring up only $11 million domestically and $25.2 million globally in week two.

The production budget alone for Tron: Ares tallies in at an estimated $180 million. Marketing and promotional expenses could add millions to that number, making its current global gross of $102.9 million a number that studio Disney is likely not celebrating.

This weekend saw another flop slot into the No. 3 spot domestically, and No. 6 globally. Good Fortune, the passion project of writer, director, and star Aziz Ansari, couldn’t even harness the combined forces of Seth Rogen, Sandra Oh, Keke Palmer, and Keanu Reeves to make a splash in its debut. The farcical comedy of angels, body swapping, and workplace ennui scored just $6 million at home and $7.5 million abroad on a $30 million budget. But at least, according to Rotten Tomatoes, critics have largely awarded the film their glowing endorsements.

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Elsewhere at the box office this weekend were One Battle After Another, which earned $4 million domestically and $15.8 million globally. The political satire from American master Paul Thomas Anderson is not on track to recoup its massively overstuffed $130 million budget, but the film is still seen as a hopeful case in the eyes of many box office prognosticators and studio watchers, given its record-setting numbers within the context of both Anderson’s career and similarly-scaled, auteur-driven films.

Channing Tatum and Kirsten Dunst’s Roofman, a based-on-a-true-story comedy, rounded out the domestic top 5 with a $3.7 million haul, slow-walking toward financial solvency with $15 million (domestic) and $18.5 million (global) grosses against an estimated $17-19 million budget.

One heavy hitter threatens the dominance of The Black Phone 2 at the box office next weekend. The Bear star Jeremy Allen White attempts to fill the enormous shoes of the The Boss himself in the Bruce Springsteen biopic Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere.

Another horror film debuts, as well, though lacking a similarly starry cast and crew, that may be able to leverage its viral word of mouth buzz to box office glory. Former film critic Chris Stuckmann makes his feature debut with Shelby Oaks, which expands on the lore spun out by a series of found footage-style videos previously released by Stuckmann, and carries a meager $1.4-2.8 million production budget.

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