Halloween Kills had the best non-live event premiere in Peacock's history, according to NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Snell. The latest installment in the long-running slasher franchise was released in theaters and on streaming on October 15. After countless sequels and even a reboot attempt from Rob Zombie, the series decided to return to square one with 2018's Halloween with David Gordon Green at the helm, which acted as a direct sequel to the original 1978 film from John Carpenter.
This year's Halloween Kills picks up right where the previous one from 2018 left off, as Michael Myers inexplicably evades death and sets out on another killing spree across the fictional town of Haddonfield, Illinois. Franchise star Jamie Lee Curtis returns as Laurie Strode in the latest installment, along with her daughter, Karen (Judy Greer), and granddaughter, Allyson (Andi Matichak). Will Paton also reprises his role as Deputy Hawkins from the last film, along with Tommy Doyle (Anthony Michael Hall) and Lindsey Wallace (Kyle Richards), two kids whom Laurie babysat in the 1978 film.
Now, during Comcast's quarterly earnings call, NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell took a second to tout the success of Halloween Kills, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Shell reportedly claimed that the film's day-and-date release resulted in the “No. 1 non-live event premiere in Peacock’s history.” Though he didn't provide an exact number of new subscribers, Shell said that Peacock “added a few million more subs” since last quarter.
While Peacock certainly has a long way to go before catching up to Netflix and Disney+, this is certainly a step in the right direction for the nascent streaming service. Previous reports revealed that 1.2 million households in the United States watched Halloween Kills on Peacock during its opening weekend. Now, it is known that this was the streaming service's best premiere for a film since its launch in July of last year. Therefore, it doesn't exactly have much competition in this regard, with one past example being The Boss Baby: Family Business.
Halloween Kills also paired these solid streaming numbers with an impressive haul at the box office, even as the pandemic continues to prevent audiences from fully returning to theaters. The latest Halloween movie posted an opening gross of $50 million, beating out the star-studded Last Duel by a mile. This was the best debut for a horror movie this year, which is even more impressive considering the numbers it also posted on Peacock. This bodes very well for next year when David Gordon Green caps off his trilogy with Halloween Ends.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
