Tenet and Hocus Pocus Duke It Out for the Top Spot at the Box Office

Not much changed at the box office this weekend. Tenet remained on top with $2.7M, which brings its domestic total to $45.1M — which, obviously isn’t good. But fear not, overseas, the brain-numbing thriller has held firm and earned a solid $262M for a worldwide total of $307M. All things considered, that WW number is good-ish. The only problem is that, according to Deadline, Cineworld is considering shutting down its No. 2 U.S. chain Regal, which would obviously impact Tenet’s long-term legs.

Said Cineworld via its Twitter account: “We can confirm we are considering the temporary closure of our U.K. and US cinemas, but a final decision has not yet been reached. Once a decision has been made we will update all staff and customers as soon as we can.”

At this point, Christopher Nolan and Warner Bros. are likely hoping Tenet can leg its way to $50-55M at the domestic box office and then make a splash on digital platforms and Blu-ray in the coming months. Though, considering its massive scale and big-screen appeal, the lackluster returns are quite disheartening for a film once touted to save theaters.

Coming in at No. 2 and giving Tenet a run for its money was the 1993 family comedy Hocus Pocus which pulled in $1.92M in 2,570 theaters. The Halloween flick has become something of a lightweight classic since its lackluster box office run all those years ago when it collected just $39M worldwide (per BoxOfficeMojo).

The remaining list was largely unchanged from last weekend save for a few new entries, Possessor Uncut (No. 7 with $227,500), Save Yourselves! (No. 9 with $141,631) and The Call (No. 10 with $140,567).