Director James Wan has struck gold for the second time this year with Insidious Chapter 2, which continued the stunning success low-budget horror movies at the box office. The film doubled expectation, grossing $41 million over the weekend. The Robert De Niro comedy The Family also fared well, but came in a distant second.
While Insidious 2 was expected to do better than its predecessor, it was not expected to nearly match the $41.9 million opening Wan’s The Conjuring had in July. According to The Wall Street Journal, it only cost FilmDistrict $5 million to make.
The film took advantage of a PG-13 rating to reach a wider audience. It also continues Blumhouse Productions’ winning streak. The studio produced Insidious, Conjuring and the Paranormal Activity franchises. It also made The Purge, which made Universal $64.5 million and only cost $3 million. Universal’s Mama kicked off horror’s banner year in January when it made $71.6 million domestically.
The second place film this week was The Family, which made $14 million, notes Entertainment Weekly. It cost Relativity Media $30 million and wasn’t expected to do well, since De Niro hasn’t really been successful lately, aside from Silver Linings Playbook and the Meet the Parents films.
Vin Diesel’s Riddick fell all the way to $7 million, a 63 percent drop from its opening weekend.
Lee Daniels’ The Butler crossed the $100 million mark, adding $5.6 million in its fifth weekend.
The Jennifer Aniston/Jason Sudeikis comedy We’re The Millers made another $5.4 million, bringing its total to $131.6 million after six weeks.