Halloween Kills slayed at the North American box office this weekend, outperforming expectations in its debut with an estimated $50.35M from 3,705 locations — offering yet more evidence of the theatrical business’ comeback from the prolonged pandemic slump.

In addition to posting the highest three-day opening weekend for a horror film during the pandemic to date, Halloween Kills also outgrossed Godzilla vs.

Though Halloween Kills came in well below the opening of Halloween 2018, which grossed $76.2M (the second-highest October debut in history at the time), the sequel also debuted day-and-date on the NBCUni streaming platform Peacock, giving fans the opportunity to watch it at home.

Speaking of fans, the Halloween franchise continued its broad appeal to both women and men, who made up 48% and 52% of the opening weekend audience, respectively.

After opening to a somewhat disappointing (albeit still strong) $55.23M last weekend, No Time to Die fell to second place with an estimated $24.3M in its sophomore frame, marking a 56% drop from its debut.

Sony’s Venom: Let There Be Carnage held well in its third weekend of release with an estimated $16.5M, a 48% drop.

With little in the way of family-friendly competition in theaters and the Halloween season heating up, United Artists’ The Addams Family 2 finished in fourth place after dropping just 29% to an estimated $7.2M in its third weekend of release.

Posting a disappointing debut in fifth place was The Last Duel, which grossed an estimated $4.82M from 3,065 locations.

Indeed, 51% of its opening weekend audience was over the age of 35 — a demo that has shown more reticence in returning to theaters than younger moviegoers.

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings finished in sixth place with an estimated $3.5M in its seventh weekend of release.

Lamb took eighth place with an estimated $543k in its second weekend, giving the A24 horror film $2.04M to date, while ninth and tenth place went to Candyman and Dear Evan Hansen, which grossed an estimated $460k and $410k for totals of $60.8M and $14.6M.

The Addams Family 2 grossed an estimated $9.71M in 21 territories this weekend, including $3.9M in Russia.

In this week’s episode of The Boxoffice Podcast, co-hosts Russ Fischer, Daniel Loria, Rebecca Pahle, and Shawn Robbins analyze the opening weekend figures of Daniel Craig’s final outing as James Bond, No Time to Die.