While The Conjuring scared up enough money at the box office to knock Despicable Me 2 from the top, the big story of the weekend was that Ryan Reynolds failed to draw audiences for either of his films. Both Dreamworks Animation’s Turbo and Universal’s R.I.P.D. disappointed.
The Conjuring got off to a fast start, opening to $17 million on Friday. The James Wan-directed film, which cost $20 million to make for Warner Bros., took in $41.5 million by Sunday, notes The Hollywood Reporter.
“It show that fresh material attracts audiences in a big way. The real-life aspect makes it look cool and the movie scares the stuffing out of you,” WB executive vp domestic distribution Jeff Goldstein told THR.
The film gives WB a sigh of relief after the big-budget Pacific Rim failed to attract audiences. Guillermo Del Toro’s film only made $16 million in its second weekend and has only made $68.2 million so far. Overseas, it is doing better, grossing $110.3 million in foreign markets.
Universal’s Despicable Me 2 only slid to No. 2 with $25.1 million in its third weekend. The film continues to impress overseas as well, making $308 million overseas in total, notes TheWrap. The animated hit is up to $276 million in the U.S.
Turbo from DWA made just $21.5 million over the weekend. According to EW, this is the worst opening for a DWA film since Flushed Away started with only $18.8 million in 2006. The film features Reynolds as the voice of a racing snail. Its failure out of the gate doesn’t make DWA look good, showing that it gained no momentum from The Croods’ $186 million total.
Grown Ups 2 added $20 million, while Red 2 opened to a disappointing $18 million.
R.I.P.D. officially cost $130 million, but there have been reports that it was much more. Nevertheless, it will have zero chance of making that money back for Universal, since it only opened to $12.5 million. It also earned a C CinemaScore from audiences, so this movie really is dead on arrival, as so many critics have said.
image: Amazon