The latest film in the “Halloween” franchise killed at the box office this weekend.

“Halloween Kills” made $50 million in its opening weekend, the film helping theaters in New Jersey slash their way back from the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It shows that the movie theater industry is on its way back,” says Doreen Sayegh, owner of Cranford Theater.

The adventures of Michael Myers is not the only horror movie to hit it big at the movies recently. Over the summer, “A Quiet Place Part 2” became the first successful blockbuster since the pandemic, followed by “The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It,” and “Venom: Let There Be Carnage.”

“It’s one of those things where you can really escape reality and jump into whatever is on the screen,” Sayegh says. “Whether it scares you or makes you laugh or makes you cry. Horror is definitely a genre that people love.”

With well over 100 movie theaters in New Jersey and Halloween being the season for horror, it may be a turning point for movie theaters on their way to a comeback.

The Cranford Theater is expanding its offerings to include screenings of horror classics in the lead-up to Halloween. Among them, “Nightmare On Elm Street,” the original 1978 “Halloween” and the documentary “Boris Karloff: The Man Behind the Monster.”