Among fans of all things spooky, Spooky Season — the extended holiday period leading up to Halloween — is generally recognized as beginning on July 5, since Halloween is the next major commercial holiday after Independence Day.
Disney seems to have embraced this idea with the release of “Haunted Mansion,” a family-friendly spookfest based on the Disney parks attraction, directed by Justin Simien (“Bad Hair“) and starring Danny DeVito, Rosario Dawson, Owen Wilson, and Jamie Lee Curtis.Unfortunately for the ghosts and ghouls of “Haunted Mansion,” the movie had two things working against it: a bloated $150 million budget, and a release date slotted for the weekend after Barbenheimer, the surprise team-up of Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” and Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” that has blown the box office away.
Earlier this week, projections for “Haunted Mansion” pointed to a $30 million opening weekend, but after the movie grossed just $9.9 million on Friday including Thursday previews,…
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