If all goes well, Scott Derricksons sequel Black Phone 2 will mark a turnaround for Blumhouse after a scary string of box office misses, culminating with the pricey flop of M3GAN 2.0 earlier this year in what was a both a professional and personal blow for Jason Blum.

Black Phone 2 started off its domestic box office run with $2.6 million in Thursday previews. Universal and Blumhouse are hoping for an $18 million domestic debut; others think it easily could do north of $20 million. In 2021 when cinemas were first recovering from COVID the first film took in $3 million in previews on its way to opening to $23.6 million in North America. The horror-thriller, starring Ethan Hawke as the serial killer known as Grabber, turned into a sleeper hit when amassing more than $161 million in worldwide ticket sales (that, however, was before horror fatigue struck at the box office).

The sequel has been embraced by many critics, including by The Hollywood Reporters Frank Scheck. Fortunately, this follow-up arriving four years later is no mere cash grab, but rather an even more stylistically and thematically ambitious effort that mostly succeeds in its aspirations, he said.

Costing a relatively inexpensive $30 million to produce, the Blumhouse and Universal release should easily top the chart and wrest the weekend crown away from Tron: Ares, which has been a disappointment so far.

Lionsgates Aziz Ansari-directed comedyGood Fortune is also launching nationwide this weekend. The $30 million film took in $725,000 in previews, and is anticipating a debut in the mid to high seven figure range, despite its star-packed cast and good reviews.

Starring Seth Rogen, Ansari, Keke Palmer, with Sandra Oh, and Keanu Reeves,Good Fortune stars Reeves a scruffy guardian angel assigned to save someones soul.

Good Fortune has likewise been generally well received by critics, with THRs review noting that thanks to the engaging ensemble and the breezily improvised feel to many of its funnier line readings,Good Fortunecoasts along agreeably on all those good intentions.