CinemaNerdz

Box Office Weekend: The Conjuring Scares Up More Than Good Reviews and Takes Box Office Gold

Seth Paul
Box Office

The Conjuring is generating a lot of buzz…not only for its high reviews, but for its money-making potential. Budgeted at $20 million, the film (directed by James Wan, who previously found success in the world of horror with the Saw franchise) brought in an estimated $41.5 million, making it the second highest opening weekend ever for a supernatural horror film (beaten only by Paranormal Activity 3). It finally managed to keep Despicable Me 2 from holding the crown, but even at an estimated $25.1 million, the family-friendly sequel has nothing to worry about; its domestic totals exceed its budget costs by a whopping $200 million, and has earned the prestigious title of third highest grossing film of 2013.

Turbo, while considered by most critics as a fairly harmless entry into the family film genre, is also making a fairly harmless road bump on the top ten, as the $135 million film made a decent if unimpressive estimated $21.5 million (and $31.2 million if counting its Wednesday release), while the decidedly critic unfriendly Grown Ups 2 made an estimated $20 million and put it within scratching distance of its costs (and at $80 million, defeating its reviews was no easy task). It certainly put itself ahead of the slightly-better-but-still-poorly received Red 2, the action comedy sequel bringing in only an estimated $18.5 million in its first weekend. With a slightly higher budget than Grown Ups 2, it will be a tough slog to make back its money.

Pacific Rim, despite mostly good reviews, struggled to locate an audience, the blockbuster’s estimated $16 million keeping it well short of its $190 million costs, leaving director Guillermo del Toro likely facing an uphill battle on several of his future projects (though the film is doing better business in foreign box office). The situation is much worse for R.I.P.D., as the Jeff Bridges/Ryan Reynolds action/comedy about policing the afterlife has faltered critically and financially, the $130 million film only scraping together an estimated $12.8 million debut.

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The final spots all belong to solid successes. The Heat brought in an estimated $9.3 million and added to an excellent $129.3 million domestic total, World War Z’s $5.2 million estimate brings it ever closer to domestic profit (but has long become a worldwide success, as well as the eighth most domestically successful film of the year), and Monsters University, made itself the fifth most successful film domestically with its estimated $5 million.

Weekend Box Office (July 19th – July 21st)

  1. The Conjuring…$41.5 million
  2. Despicable Me 2…$25.1 million
  3. Turbo…$21.5 million
  4. Grown-Ups 2…$20 million
  5. Red 2…$18.5 million
  6. Pacific Rim…$16 million
  7. R.I.P.D….$12.8 million
  8. The Heat…$9.3 million
  9. World War Z…$5.2 million
  10. Monsters University…$5 million

Seth Paul

When not failing to write novels and screenplays, box-office guru Seth writes humorous comedy tracks for films under the name "The One Man Band" that can be found at Rifftrax.com. Although, he has recently succeeded in writing the novella "Jack Alan and the Case of the Not-Exactly Rocket Scientists," available as an eBook on Amazon. He is also the English voice of Zak in "Zak McKracken: Between Time and Space."
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