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| Patrick Wilson & Vera Farmiga (r) in The Conjuring |
It wasn't Batman-esque, but Warner Bros. Pictures' The Conjuring easily won this weekend's box office with a better than expected $41.5 million opening, unseating Universal's Despicable Me 2 after two weeks at #1. The Conjuring was one of four major new releases, but the only one that performed well.
DreamWorks Animation's Turbo stalled, taking home $21.5 million over the weekend ($31.2M since Wednesday's opening) to place third overall ahead of the critically panned (but still financially viable) Grown Ups 2 and newbie Red 2. Grown Ups 2 earned another $20 million to push its 10-day domestic total to $79.5 million... just shy of its $80 million budget. Red 2 struggled, finishing fifth with just $18.5 million (that's $4 million less than 2010's Red.) Hopefully this puts any thoughts of Red 3 to bed, don't you think?
Meanwhile, Universal's R.I.P.D. opened cold (to critics, then audiences.) The Ryan Reynolds-Jeff Bridges starrer bombed with a poor $12.8 million bow... considerably less than the film's purported $130+ million budget. 7th place and an 11% rating on Rotten Tomatoes is bound to let this dud "rest in peace."
On the independent front, TWC's Fruitvale Station grossed a whopping $742K from just 34 locations... good for a per screen average of just under $22,000. In addition, Nicolas Winding Refn's Only God Forgives opened, earning an average of $4,038 across 78 locations (including DC.) The crime thriller, starring Ryan Gosling also debuted on iTunes and On Demand, and could top the previous VOD record set last year by Arbitrage. Claws up this weekend, as Marvel's The Wolverine opens, starring Hugh Jackman.
The top 10 films for this weekend...
1. The Conjuring $41.5M
2. Despicable Me 2 $25.1M
3. Turbo $21.5M
4. Grown Ups 2 $20M
5. Red 2 $18.5M
6. Pacific Rim $16M
7. R.I.P.D. $12.8M
8. The Heat $9.3M
9. World War Z $5.2M
10. Monsters University $5M
