Box Office Battle: 'Halloween' opening to add to massive October

Comcast (CMCSA, CMCSK) subsidiary Universal and Blumhouse's "Halloween," which is opening this weekend and has already made $7.7M in Thursday night previews, is expected to be the second largest October opening ever, after Sony's (SNE) "Venom," which broke the record only two weeks ago. "Halloween," starring Jamie Lee Curtis, Judy Greer, and Will Patton, is expected to earn around $70M at 3,928 theaters in its first weekend, while "Venom," starring Tom Hardy as the titular anti-hero, is expected to earn $16M in its third weekend at theaters. Meanwhile, AT&T (T) subsidiary Warner Bros' musical drama "A Star is Born," starring Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper, is expected to earn about $19M in its second weekend at theaters. Universal's "First Man," starring Ryan Gosling as astronaut Neil Armstrong, is expected to earn an additional $9M-$10M in its second weekend at theaters. Other publicly traded companies in filmmaking include 21st Century Fox (FOX, FOXA), Disney (DIS), Lionsgate (LGF.A, LGF.B), and Viacom (VIA, VIAB).