This week, moviegoers were scared, but not as scared as film execs.
The low budget horror film “The Conjuring” scared the heck out of the competition this week pulling in $41.5 million at the box office as the dreaded F-word (flop) started making it’s way into more frequent use. The film directed by James Wan (“Saw”, “Insidious”) easily blew away the competition in a week that had surprise low for some big name debuts.
Besides “The Conjuring,” the newbies had to bow down to Gru and “Despicable Me 2”. The animated blockbuster pulled in another $25.1 million to secure the #2 spot this week and bring its domestic total to $276.2 million.
The Ryan Reynolds-Jeff Bridges supernatural cop film “R.I.P.D” found itself being brought up on charges as it’s shaping to be the flop of the week, if not the entire summer. The film grossed a criminal $12.8 million for 7th place. Of course, the film cost at least $135 million to make, so don’t expect a sequel or for a retrial. At least the guys from “After Earth” and the “The Lone Ranger” have someone to laugh at.
One that won’t be laughing so much is “Pacific Rim”. It brought in $15.9 million for the week to bring it to $68.2 million in it’s second week. It cost $200 million and seems to be going downhill fast.
It’s been a while since we’ve seen an animated film disappoint. This one did so with the help of a nitrous-powered snail with dreams of grandeur. “Turbo” came in with $21.5 million to open it’s run, but like R.I.P.D, it also cost in the neighborhood of $130 million. Dreamworks rarely produces a dude, so this is a rarity, but don’t expect them to want to see another snail anytime soon.
“Red” was a cute movie about burned spies that surprised moviegoers in 2010. It was too good for a sequel, which is why made one. It’s also why it didn’t do as well as the original bringing in $18.5 million in its debut. Middle-aged spies and a hot septuagenarian only gets you so far. Perhaps the next mystery they can solve is why open this movie in mid-summer when the original opened in a much safer October window.
Rounding out the top 10…
8. The Heat….$9.3 million
9. World War Z…$5.2 million
10. Monsters University…$5 million
