The ComingSoon.net Box Office Report has been updated with studio estimates for the weekend. Click here for the full box office estimates of the top 12 films and then check back on Monday for the final figures based on actual box office.
Just two months after his horror movie The Conjuring opened with $41.8 million, Saw co-creator James Wan was back behind the camera of his first sequel, Insidious Chapter 2 (FilmDistrict), once again starring Patrick Wilson, Rose Byrne, Lin Shaye, Ty Simpkins, Barbara Hershey and Wan’s screenwriting partner Leigh Whannell, and it proved to be just as big a hit.
It opened on Thursday night with previews that brought in $1.5 million, but it really exploded on its well-selected Friday the 13th opening day with $20.1 million. The anticipation for the sequel as well as its opening day accounted for the movie’s frontloading, going by the studio’s three-day weekend estimate of $41 million, which still makes it the second-highest opener for September as well as the second-biggest horror opening for the year just behind The Conjuring.
Neither movie surpassed the opening for the third installment of Blumhouse Productions’ flagship horror franchise Paranormal Activity 3 and its record-setting horror opening of $52.5 million, but both opened bigger than the movies in that series that preceded and followed it.
Robert De Niro, Michelle Pfeiffer and Tommy Lee Jones were the three big name veterans starring in the Luc Besson’s crime-action flick The Family (Relativity), which opened in 3,091 theaters on Friday to take second place with $14.5 million for the weekend.
Vin Diesel’s return as Riddick (Universal) took a nasty plunge in its second weekend, dropping 63% to third place with just $7 million and $31.3 million grossed in its first ten days.
The weekend saw a fairly close race for fourth place, but Lee Daniels’ The Butler (The Weinstein Company) came out slightly ahead of the R-rated road comedy We’re the Millers (New Line/WB) with $5.6 million to the latter’s $5.4 million. The Weinsteins’ historic drama looks to achieve the $100 million milestone including Sunday estimates while “Millers” has grossed $131.6 million since opening in early August.
The breakout hit Mexican comedy Instructions Not Included (Lionsgate/Pantelion) dropped to sixth place with $4.2 million, down 48% despite expanding into 932 theaters, having grossed $26.6 million to date.
Disney’s Planes took seventh place with $3.1 million with a domestic gross of $83 million, as well as adding $10.7 million internationally to bring its global total to $138.8 million.
One Direction: This Is Us (Sony/Tristar) played as an “extended fan cut” in 2,300 locations this weekend, helping it to hold up better in its third weekend to take eighth place with $2.4 million with a total gross of $26.9 million.
Neill Blomkamp’s Elysium (Sony/Tristar), starring Matt Damon, took ninth place with $2 million to bring its own total to $88.4 million.
The Top 10 grossed roughly $87.4 million, which was up more than $22 million from the same weekend last year when the fifth installment of the action-horror franchise Resident Evil: Retribution topped the box office with $21 million and Finding Nemo 3D followed in second place with $16.7 million.
Click here for the full box office estimates of the top 12 films.
