Why The Black Phone 2 Blew Everyone Away At The Box Office

Horror factory Blumhouse Productions has been on a cold streak lately. Flops like “M3gan 2.0” and “Wolf Man” have inspired many to wonder whether or not the days of this outfit cranking out non-stop hits like “Get Out” and “The Purge” are over. However, Blumhouse just roared back to life with the mighty opening of “Black Phone 2,” which bowed to $27.3 million domestically. This impressive debut wasn’t just ahead of the original “Black Phone’s” North American opening. It was also, as of this writing, the 21st biggest domestic launch of 2025, ahead of films like “Ballerina,” “The Accountant 2,” and “Mickey 17.”

While a handful of recent horror sequels, such as “I Know What You Did Last Summer” and “M3gan 2.0,” came in severely under box office expectations, “Black Phone 2” instead surpassed its performance predictions. As everyone at Blumhouse breathes a sigh of relief, it’s worth asking what went so right to give “Black Phone 2” such a grand start. Several important elements converged to ensure these figures, including the reputation of the initial installment, “Black Phone 2” debuting in the heart of Halloween season, the film’s eye-catching aesthetic, and more.

All of these factors make it abundantly clear why “Black Phone 2” was as successful as other recent Blumhouse efforts were frightfully unprofitable. Put on your heaviest coat and let’s answer the call on why “Black Phone 2” blew everyone away financially.

Released just before the 2022 July 4 weekend, “The Black Phone” became a surprise sleeper hit. Debuting to just over $23 million, it rode summer weekdays and the 4th of July holiday to a sterling domestic haul. Even with competition from tentpoles “Thor: Love and Thunder” and “Nope,” this motion picture didn’t crumble. Once the dust settled, the Scott Derrickson directorial effort sang to the tune of $90.1 million domestically, a whopping five times its $18 million budget. That was also a terrific 3.81 times its North American bow, a clear signal that the feature was supported by good word-of-mouth.

So often, horror movies are one weekend wonders that quickly plummet off a cliff thanks to poor audience reception. Just look at the critically panned “The Devil Inside,” which opened to $34.5 million but could only clear $52 million in its lifetime domestic haul. “The Black Phone” eschewed such a box office lifespan by becoming a must-see crowdpleaser, with a B+ CinemaScore grade that’s incredibly rare for a horror title. Further maneuvers like Derrickson helming a 2023 “V/H/S” segment set in the world of “Black Phone” helped keep this admired universe on people’s minds in between sequels.

With a well-liked predecessor, “Black Phone 2” didn’t come off as a cash grab. It instead felt like an extension of something beloved, a key factor to gaining audience trust.

“Black Phone 2” rocked theaters as similar box office titan “The Conjuring: Last Rites” entered its seventh weekend of release and roughly a month before the Osgood Perkins horror title “Keeper.” All of this meant there was a clear void in the marketplace for a new scary feature, especially since late September and early October outings like “The Strangers — Chapter II,” “Him,” and “Bone Lake” failed to take off. There was a gap that The Grabber’s latest antics could fix. Competing on its opening weekend against non-horror fare like “Good Fortune,” “After the Hunt,” and “Truth & Treason,” “Black Phone 2” had the marketplace all to itself.

And with Halloween just around the corner, this void couldn’t have come at a better time. This spine-tingling holiday always puts the public in the mood for horror fare, as seen by the month’s biggest openers like “Five Nights at Freddy’s,” “Paranormal Activity 3,” and Blumhouse’s own “Halloween” trilogy. Heck, even the widely-forgotten “Countdown” scored an $8.86 million debut in 2019, thanks to releasing just six days before Halloween. 

The distance between “Last Rites” and “Black Phone 2” didn’t just ensure that the final “Conjuring” adventure didn’t trample The Grabber’s return. It also gave this Blumhouse feature the extra benefit of debuting in a month so prosperous for nightmare-inducing cinema, sealing the deal for “Black Phone 2’s” timely box office domination.

For many unnerving cinema geeks, some of the most tantalizing unmade horror films are those set in the snow. Specifically, obsession persists over unrealized “Candyman” and “Friday the 13th” installments that would’ve seen each franchise’s famous slasher foes stalk people in snowstorms. Chilly backdrops would’ve instantly made these entries stand out from their predecessors. They also would’ve been rare forays into winter-themed horror, which isn’t exactly crowded, as you might imagine. 

While those sequels never got made, “Black Phone 2’s” snow-heavy marketing campaign was a reminder of the allure that comes from fusing chilly environments with chilling cinema. Posters and billboards emphasizing The Grabber’s mask covered in snow alone were incredibly striking. Reinforcing these wintery tableaus in the advertising, meanwhile, gave “Black Phone 2” a unique look that promised prospective moviegoers something distinct from the first movie. 

2025 was not a year for snow-dominated horror fare. “Sinners” took place in the Mississippi Delta, while “28 Years Later’s” zombie carnage occurred against blooming foliage. Against these recent releases, “Black Phone 2’s” adherence to snowy landscapes was especially unique. Relying on the bitter cold was a shrewd move for this franchise. Is it too late to get those snowy “Candyman” and “Friday the 13th” entries green-lit?

2021’s Blumhouse sequel “Halloween Kills” revealed that Michael Myers had actually survived the previous film’s finale to ensure that more “Halloween” slaying could occur. For “Black Phone 2,” Scott Derrickson and company went in a different direction. This outing would emphasize that The Grabber did indeed die in the first “Black Phone,” but just as his victims had used a phone to communicate with the land of the living, so too could this serial killer continue slaughtering through another plane of existence. It was a bold move suddenly transforming the “Black Phone” foe from a John Wayne Gacy-type into a modern-day successor to Freddy Krueger. 

That radical shift also turned out to be a perfect element in selling “Black Phone 2” to the general public. Commercials and trailers promised a radically new version of The Grabber that was as malicious to kids as ever. However, now he used supernatural means to execute his killings. It was a deft blend of the old and new that so many lucrative sequels are built on. 

Plus, this overhaul allowed “Black Phone 2” to once again further deploy and explore Ethan Hawke’s endless talents. The allure of seeing the four-time Oscar-nominee chew up the scenery as a maximalist horror baddie clearly hadn’t worn off between “Black Phone” entries. Everything about The Grabber in this outing was a perfect way to guarantee audience interest in “Black Phone 2.”

With “Black Phone 2’s” debut, an unexpected record was achieved across the wider industry. Horror films in 2025 have currently procured $1.2 billion in North America, the biggest annual haul ever for the genre in this territory, far surpassing the previous yearly record for the genre in 2017. A similar array of titles has informed 2025’s $1.2 billion cume, including “Sinners,” “Final Destination Bloodlines,” “The Monkey,” and “28 Years Later.” Such extraordinary recent success for this genre makes it further clear why “Black Phone 2” broke out at the box office.

There’s been a steady stream of horror hits all throughout 2025. Rare has been the month that didn’t deliver a moneymaker like “Weapons” or “The Conjuring: Last Rites.” With that deluge of choices, there were plenty of opportunities to market “Black Phone 2.” Not only was its trailer running before some of the year’s biggest hits, but there was also the general public’s obvious love for this genre. Crowdpleasers like “Sinners” got people craving further horror features, a hankering that “Black Phone 2” was all too happy to satisfy.

A rising tide lifts all boats, as they say. For “Black Phone 2,” that meant all the buzz stemming from a record-shattering year for American horror helped lift it past initial box office expectations.