Well this came out of no where. With an animated snail, a group of “A” list action stars, and a PG-13 “Men In Black” look-a-like coming to theaters, audiences drove to the horrific scares of “The Conjuring” which opened this weekend to a shocking $41.5 million.
Based on a true story, the film follows two paranormal investigators as they help a family being terrorized by an otherworldly presence in their house.
It was praised critically by fans and critics alike (scoring an 85% on Rotten Tomatoes) but that’s what you can usually expect from director James Wan (Saw, Insidious). With a budget of only 20 million, obviously big things can be expected in the future of this franchise.
Big win for Warner Bros.
Dropping to second this week is the previous king of the box office, Despicable Me 2 with another $25 million. The film has now passed over the $275 million marker, has already out grossed it’s biggest competition (Monsters U) and now stands third in the highest grossing domestic movies of this year, is only nine million behind “Man of Steel”.
Unfortunately, things can’t be as good for our next group of films (minus 1). Newcomers, Turbo, Red 2, and RIPD (Rest in Peace Department) all debuted with poor numbers. Turbo, the animated film about a snail who gains super speed, debuted with 21.5 million over the weekend, and added only 10 million since its Wednesday release.
Red 2, the sequel to the 2010 action film, came out poor bringing in only $18.5 million. Finally, RIPD flopped horribly debuting at No. 7 on the list with $12.7 million. All three movies budgets are extremely high for them to produces these horrible openings (Turbo-$135 million, Red 2- $84 million and RIPD– $130 million).
If word of mouth doesn’t spread quickly, all three of them may be going the same route of The Lone Ranger and (sigh) Pacific Rim.
Speaking of Pacific Rim, it continues to flop domestically in its second week with only another $15.95 million. The $190 million action/sci-fi film has only reached $68 million over the two week span but has grossed over 110 million in the foreign box office, so worst case scenario it looks like it’ll have made it’s money back for Warner Bros.
Grown Ups 2 continues its run adding another 20 million to its total. The movie reportedly cost only $80 million to make, so with it’s budget back in tow, looks like this “comedy” appears to be another summer hit.
Rounding out the top ten is The Heat, which will not go away. The buddy cop comedy starring Melissa McCarthy and Sandra Bullock is less than 5 million away from overtaking Identity Thief and becoming the highest grossing comedy of the year.
The Heat continues to get repeat business and strong word of mouth, only dropping 33% of its audience this weekend. World War Z stays tough after being on the top ten for 5 weeks straight, bringing in another 5.2 million. Finally, Monsters U comes in at number 10 with 5 million. The film rests currently in 6th place on Pixar’s all time grossing films, and is only 7 million behind its predecessor.
Movie Title Weekend $$$ Total Gross (as of 7/21/13)
1- The Conjuring 41.5 M 41.5 M
2- Despicable Me 2 25 M 276.1 M
3- Turbo 21.5 M 31.2 M
4- Grown Ups 2 20 M 79.5 M
5- Red 2 18.5 M 18.5 M
6- Pacific Rim 15.95 M 68.2 M
7- R.I.P.D 12.7 M 12.7 M
8- The Heat 9.3 M 129.2 M
9- World War Z 5.2 M 186.9 M
10- Monsters U 5 M 249 M