Earning four times the opening of the original, Insidious: Chapter 2 got off to a great start with $41 million, the best debut ever for a horror movie in September. It's also just $1 million off the best September opening, which was set last year by Hotel Transylvania, a rare animated offering during what's usually a quieter month. Adding to the list of records, the opening makes director James Wan only the second person ever (to the Matrix series' Wachowskis) to open two movies that high in the same year. Just a couple of months ago, Wan's The Conjuring also started off with over $40 million in a weekend. But what did audiences think? Viewers gave it a "B+" in exit polls, which is pretty good for a horror movie, which often receive poor grades. Insidious: Chapter 2 also benefited from topicality: Half the weekend take came from Friday the 13th. Based on the first three days, I think it's also safe to guess that there will be an Insidious: Chapter 3 headed to theatres sometime next year.
The spy action-comedy The Family had a stronger debut than expected, opening to $14.5 million, director Luc Besson's second-best opening weekend. Older audiences in particular turned out to see Robert De Niro and Michelle Pfeiffer as mobsters in witness protection: 83% of audiences clocked in over the age of 25.
In four weeks of release, The Butler has limited its decline to roughly a third a week. This week, it dipped another 33% to $5.5 million, which pushed it over the $100 million mark. For the Weinstein Co., this is a big milestone, only the fifth time the distributor has gone into nine-figure territory. Another movie that's been holding particularly well has been We're the Millers. The comedy has earned $131 million to date. This week it finished right behind The Butler, with $5.4 million and a 30% decrease from the previous week.
On Wednesday, Nicole Holofcener's romantic comedy Enough Said, featuring a final performance from the late James Gandolfini, will begin its release. On Friday, action thriller Prisoners will go against a smaller wide release of the b-boy dance film Battle of the Year, a 3D re-release of The Wizard of Oz, and a limited opening of Rush.
No comments:
Post a Comment