Terrifier 3 Wins Box Office Battle of the Killer Clowns

Art the Clown has dethroned Arthur Fleck as the box office’s favorite killer clown whose first name is Arthur. Weird that there are two! Terrifier 3 debuted at number 1 at the domestic box office, earning $20 million in its first week. Below that, Joker 2 came in second, with just over $7 million. Folie à Deux had an 80% drop in ticket sales its second week, per Variety. It had a bigger drop off than The Marvels, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, Shazam: Fury of the Gods, and The Flash. How un-cheerworthy of a moment for comic book movies. It just goes to show: promise a musical with Lady Gaga and present a non-musical with Stefani Germonatta? Bad B.O. Promise a Christmas movie about a clown that kills people and present a Christmas movie about a clown that kills people? Boffo box office, baby. Even if it’s Christmas in October.

Also having less-than-cheerworthy opening weekends are Pharrell’s Lego doc Piece by Piece, Lorne Michaels stress dream Saturday Night, and controversial Trump/Roy Cohn biopic The Apprentice. They debuted at 6th, 7th, and 11th respectively. Rounding out the top 5 were The Wild Robot, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, and Transformers One. Next week, Smile 2 debuts, which comedian Demi Adejuyigbe pointed out on Twitter, means that “a sequel about a killer clown, a sequel about an evil smile, and a $200m sequel about a killer clown with an evil smile” will all be competing for the same audience. Who say Hollywood is out of ideas?