The Conjuring Universe rules as The Nun II pulls in a solid $32.6 million as it looks to hold steady throughout the spooky season.
This weekend was a battle of sequels as the top three films were not the first films in their respective franchises. Coming out on top was The Nun II with an estimated $32.6 million, which falls in line with our predictions from Thursday. That number falls about $20 million shy of the first films $53.8 million. While that first movie cost a reported $22 million and was able to grab over $365.5 million worldwide, this sequel carries an estimated $38.5 million budget and will need to hit a worldwide take of over $100 million to be profitable… which it will easily do.
The good news to report is that the film garnered a C+ cinemascore, up from the originals C score while its audience score has shot way up: 74% compared to the originals 35%. Those numbers could bode well for this movie as we head into the season of the scary movie. Of course this year there does seem to be some heavy competition in that category as The Haunting in Venice comes out next week, followed by Saw X on September 29, The Exorcist: Believer on October 6, Five Nights At Freddy’s on October 27 and perhaps scariest of them all: Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour on October 13.
Coming in second place is the Denzel Washington led The Equalizer 3 with $12.1 million representing a franchise worst drop of 65%. Luckily the film was made with a fairly modest budget of $70 million and should be able to leg out to a decent, if unremarkable, finish.
Third place will go to My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3 with $10 million which is nearly half of what the 2016 sequel made ($17.8 million). This is a clear cut case of a film with diminishing returns and I think this one may be the end to this long running and quite lucrative franchise. I remember when the original film came out all the way back in 2002 and it being a zeitgeist level hit with the type of word of mouth you can comfortably compare to something like Barbie. No lackluster sequel can ever take away from that and when it is all said and done that original film still holds the title for the highest grossing romantic comedy of all time and that is pretty impressive.
Fourth place looks to be the Hindi language Jawan with a reported $6.1 million. That solid domestic bow comes after the film has already broken records in India with the highest opening day ever. Generally these Hindi language films have there built in audience that propel them to top ten finishes in their opening weekends with around $1-$2 million, but apparently this Jawan is something a bit more special and is drawing in a more diverse audience. It will be interesting to see how it holds up in the weeks to come.
Fifth place is, as you expected, Barbie with an estimated $5.9 million,as it falls out of the top two for the first time in its nearly 2-month long run. The film is expected to hit digital platforms this coming Tuesday where I’m sure it will again set records. With awards season coming up, you can expect the studio to have a full tilt push for this film as it currently has momentum for screenplay and supporting actor nominations.
The remainder of the top ten are your holdover titles including Blue Beetle with an estimated $3.7 million, Gran Turismo with an estimated $3.3 million, Oppenheimer with another $3 million added to its excellent $315.1 million domestic gross, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem with an added $2.6 million and the hit independent comedy Bottoms with a reported $2 million.
Did you make it to theaters this weekend? If so, let us know what you saw in the comments section and don’t forget to take our weekly poll where we ask: What is your favorite movie in The Conjuring Universe?