Focus Features won the Halloween weekend with their low-budget horror film Come Play, which easily earned the #1 spot at the box office. It plans to release on Premium VOD November 20, only three weeks after its theatrical release.
The film earned $3 million without even playing at open Regal theaters. This is the first time that top chains are playing first-run film knowing that it will reach PVOD much sooner than the regular window of 75 days. With fewer new films available for theaters to show, exhibitors are regarding this as a COVID-19 exception.
Come Play follows the parents of a young child with autism who try to protect him from a mysterious creature that uses his electronic devices to break into the real world. The film is the feature-length directorial debut of Jacob Chase, who also penned the script. It stars Marriage Story‘s Azhy Robertson, Community’s Gillian Jacobs, and 10 Cloverfield Lane actor John Gallagher Jr.
The film received a middling 52% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes with 79 reviews, but regardless of critical acclaim, it’s a historic moment for Focus.
In second place at the box office was Liam Neeson’s crime thriller Honest Thief, and in third place was the Robert Deniro family comedy, The War with Grandpa. Both films earned just over $1 million during the weekend.
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