Halloween Kills made a killing at the domestic box office on its debut with $50.35 million which surpassed all expectations, including that of the horror sequel’s studio, Universal Pictures.

The twelfth installment in the Halloween movie series, with Jamie Lee Curtis and James Jude Courtney reprising their roles as Laurie Strode and Michael Myers, respectively, scored the biggest three-day opening weekend for a horror genre movie film in the COVID-19 health crisis era.

The follow-up to 2018’s Halloween, which continues the saga of Laurie and Michael, also sees the return of Judy Greer, Will Patton and Andi Matichak, and features new cast members, Thomas Mann and Anthony Michael Hall.

The recent spate of huge debut numbers for Venom: Let There Be Carnage, No Time to Die and now, Halloween Kills, revived hopes that moviegoing is indeed inching back to normal.

Speaking of 007, while Daniel Craig’s fifth and last movie as James Bond dropped to second place, No Time to Die still collected a hefty $24.3 million. So far, the Cary Joji Fukunaga-directed espionage action spectacle has netted $99.51 million.

In third spot, Venom: Let There Be Carnage was also holding well, with $16.5 million. Tom Hardy’s successful return as Eddie Brock/Venom has already made $168.08 million after three weekends.

The Addams Family 2, enjoying its reign as the family fare in the cineplexes, raked in $7.2 million to rank fourth. The animated sequel, featuring a voice cast that includes Oscar Isaac (Gomez), Charlize Theron (Morticia), Chloe Grace Moretz (Wednesday) and Javon “Wanna” Walton (Pugsley), has enough legs to carry over the adventure-comedy until Halloween.

The star power of The Last Duel’s cast – Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Adam Driver and Jodie Comer – wasn’t enough to make the film bow stronger. Based on the book of the same name by Eric Jager about true events in 14^th century, the historical drama earned a dismal $4.82 million.

Directed by Ridley Scott, the film dramatizes a true story on the last officially sanctioned judicial duel in medieval France.

Rounding out the rest of the top 10 were, in order: Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings ($3.5 million), Free Guy ($680,000), Lamb ($543,000), Candyman ($460,000) and Dear Evan Hansen ($410,000

In the international box office race, Venom 2 was still on a rampage and drew $62.3 million in 44 territories. Actor Andy Serkis’ latest directing project, which also stars Woody Harrelson, Michelle Williams and Naomie Harris, has amassed an offshore total of $115.6 million and a global tally of $283.68 million.

James Bond also stayed robust overseas with $53.99 million. With international and global earnings of $348.3 million and $447.5 million, respectively, No Time to Die is poised to become the second biggest Hollywood movie offshore, after Vin Diesel’s F9.

Other strong holdovers in the overseas market were The Addams Family 2 ($9.71 million) and Denis Villeneuve and Timothée Chalamet’s Dune ($8.5 million).

No Time to Die and Dune are scheduled to invade China this October. In the meantime, the homegrown blockbuster, The Battle at Lake Chjangjin, grabbed another $72 million to add to its cumulative total of a staggering $763 million.