In a surprisingly strong weekend at the box office, we had four newcomers along with three films in expanded limited release, and the total box office ended up at $194 million. That's down from last year, but that was the same weekend that The Dark Knight Rises opened and did huge business so it's really not that surprising. The #1 film this weekend was James Wan's new horror film The Conjuring. I was planning on seeing it this weekend, but I didn't get to it. It's been a mess on my end and I'm really behind on films that I need to see. I will get you reviews of The Conjuring, The Way, Way Back, The Wolverine and possibly something else over the next week. I'll get it done. There are just too many films to see. Anyways, The Conjuring took in $41.5 million this weekend. That's the highest opening of all-time for an original supernatural horror flick. In addition, The Conjuring received an "A-" Cinemascore from audiences which means they liked it. Now there's talk of turning the film into a franchise and making lots of sub-par sequels. Woo-hoo!
Second place belonged to Universal's Despicable Me 2, which is still going strong at the box office. It took in another $25 million which means that it's total gross is $276 million. That's a lot of cash. And Universal is going to need it after R.I.P.D. But we'll get to that in a minute. In addition to all the money that Despicable Me 2 has made in America, they're also making a lot overseas with a total worldwide gross of $584.5 million. Crazy.
In third place, Turbo continued to prove that the family dollar rules the box office, but it also proved that it only stretches so far. Turbo opened on Wednesday and through five days, the film has made $31 million, including $21.5 million over the weekend. It did receive an "A" Cinemascore, but they better hope that that film gets good word of mouth, because if it doesn't, Dreamworks Animation is in real trouble. They have to stop making $135 million dollar films. With an unsurprisingly good hold, Grown Ups 2 finished in fourth place with $20 million. That's a solid 50% drop, but the film has so far made $79.5 million. That film will have no troubles crossing $100 million.
Red 2 debuted in fifth place this weekend with $18.5 million. That's a weak debut for an $85 million film, but the "B+" Cinemascore promises decent word-of-mouth. However, unless the film does really well overseas, it could possibly lose money. Pacific Rim held steady with a $15.9 million total gross over the weekend in sixth place. The mega-budgeted actioner has now grossed $68 million in the US and $178 million worldwide. It's going to lose money, but it will be more like Cowboys and Aliens than John Carter.
Speaking of flops, the biggest one of the year hit theaters this weekend in the form of R.I.P.D. The Men in Black rip-off grossed only $12.7 million, which is stunningly low for a $130 million film. Even worse, R.I.P.D. has only grossed $19 million worldwide. Luckily, Universal has Fast and Furious 6 and Despicable Me 2 to back them up. Otherwise, they'd be in big trouble. I typically go to all the big-budget extravaganza's and even I didn't check out R.I.P.D. so that's saying something.
And to round out the top ten, we had The Heat in 8th place with $9.3 million to raise its total to $129 million. World War Z was in 9th place with $5.2 million to raise its total to $186 million. And Monsters University was in tenth place with $2 million to raise its total to $248.9 million.
Now for next weekend: The Wolverine is the big wide release but The Way, Way Back is expanding and so is Fruitvale Station. The To-Do List is also hitting several theaters. Here are my early predictions:
1. The Wolverine- $92.3 million
2. The Conjuring- $23 million
3. Despicable Me 2- $16 million
4. Turbo- $14.6 million
5. Grown Ups 2- $11 million
6. Red 2- $10 million
7. The Way, Way Back- $8.7 million
8. Pacific Rim- $8.1 million
9. The Heat- $6.1 million
10. The To-Do List- $5.9 million
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