It was predicted to top, but Insidious: Chapter 2 came in much larger than expected, hauling in an estimated $41 million, and making it the biggest opening ever for a horror film in September. This is the second win for director James Wan this year, following the huge success of The Conjuring just a couple of months ago. Unfortunately for fans, Wan says he won't be taking on any more horror films, because he's set to move on to the Fast & Furious franchise next year, but his success in this genre remains the bar for future horror directors, and Insidious played well with the crowd ("B+" Cinemascore) despite negative reviews, so his fanbase appears to be pretty loyal.
The Robert DeNiro-Michelle Pfeiffer mob movie The Family opened better than expected, to $14.5 million in second place, but it received a pretty bad "C" rating from the audience, so don't expect it to hang around very long, especially with all the Oscar bait adult dramas set to come out in the coming weeks.
Top 5:
- Insidious: Chapter 2- $41.05 million
- The Family- $14.5 million
- Riddick- $7 million
- Lee Daniels' The Butler- $5.6 million
- We're the Millers- $5.4 million
In the holdovers, Riddick plunged 63% from last weekend, and The Butler finally crossed $100 million. We're the Millers sits in 5th place with a cumulative $131 million so far and is now Jennifer Aniston's fourth highest grossing film, behind The Break-Up, Marley and Me, and Bruce Almighty (although I'm not sure that one should really count as her film). And in global box office news, Monsters University is about to pass Up's $731 million gross to become the third biggest Pixar movie ever. Well, that's about it for this weekend, everyone! Next up it's the Hugh Jackman drama Prisoners and the 3D dance movie Battle of the Year as the two wide releases on September 20th.
