Black Phone 2 beats out flagging Tron: Ares at the box office in much-needed box office win for Blumhouse

Black Phone 2 has grabbed the number one spot at the US box office this weekend, though Tron: Ares is on the verge of being derezzed thanks to a sharp drop in its second week.

As confirmed by Variety, Black Phone 2 – which sees the return of Ethan Hawke's Grabber – took home $26.5 million in its opening, compared to the original's $23 million opening back in 2022.

Tron: Ares may have escaped the Grid but it's also escaping the attention of mainstream audiences – with $11.1 million this weekend.

So, horror wins the day again in October. It also marks a much-needed win for Blumhouse at the box office after stalling throughout much of 2025. Wolf Man took home $35 million, barely recouping its budget, while The Woman in the Yard ($23.2 million), and Drop ($28.7 million) represented minor wins, but a far cry from the likes of Speak No Evil and Insidious: The Red Door in years past.

M3GAN 2.0 was also a pretty notable disappointment, garnering only $40 million at the box office compared to the original's $181 million breakout success.

Reacting to the failure, Blumhouse head Jason Blum said on The Town with Matthew Belloni podcast, "We all thought M3GAN was like Superman. We could do anything to her. We could change genres, we could put her in the summer, we could make her look different, we could turn her from the bad guy into the good guy. And we kind of classically overthought how powerful people's engagement was with her."

Black Phone 2 is now in cinemas. For more, check out our guide to new horror movies coming your way very soon.