‘Conjuring 3’ dominates box office with $24 million opening

The latest part of Conjuring: the devil made me do it, released last weekend and the sales soar high up to $24 million in ticket sales from 3,102 North American cinemas. The results are especially strong as the film is readily available on HBO Max without any extra charges to subscribers.

Heading into the weekend, box office prognosticators expected reigning champ “A Quiet Place Part II” to lead again. The horror sequel, directed by John Krasinski, debuted last weekend to a pandemic-record $48 million and took in an impressive $58 million in its first five days of release.

Even with competition from a fellow terror-inducing movie, “A Quiet Place 2” still enjoyed a solid sophomore outing. The movie generated $19.5 million from 3,744 theaters, boosting its total U.S. haul to a roaring $88 million. Overseas, “A Quiet Place Part II” added another $19 million, bringing its global tally to $138 million.

Warner Bros did not report how many people watched “The Devil Made Me Do It” on HBO Max. At the international box office, where the company’s streaming service hasn’t launched, the movie has made $33 million worldwide to date. The R-rated movie which cost $40 million to produce has amassed $57 million worldwide.

In this part, Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga return as paranormal experts to investigate demonic happenings that trace back to the real-life 1981 murder trial of Arne Cheyenne Johnson.

“Quiet Place,” another scare film, directed by John Krasinski and starring his wife Emily Blunt, took in $19.5 million for the Friday-through-Sunday period, down from last weekend´s $48 million but still considered a solid result with 75 percent of theatres now open.

The Paramount film, about a family in a post-apocalyptic world haunted by fierce but mostly unseen monsters, is slated to become the quickest film to cross the $100 million mark in North America since Covid-19 plunged the world — and the film industry — into crisis.

“The landscape is becoming competitive again,” Hollywood Reporter quoted Warner executive Jeff Goldstein as saying, “which is a great sign of things to come in the summer and fall.”

In third place was Disney´s family-friendly “Cruella,” an origin story based on its popular “One Hundred and One Dalmatians.” With Emma Stone as the sneering title villain, the live-action film took in $11.2 million.

The fourth spot went to Universal´s computer-animated “Spirit Untamed” at $6.2 million. Isabela Merced voices a young girl who befriends a wild mustang named Spirit. Jake Gyllenhaal and Julianne Moore also star.

In fifth place, for the second straight week, was Disney´s computer-animated fantasy “Raya and the Last Dragon,” at $1.3 million. Its mostly Asian-American cast includes the voices of Awkwafina and Sandra Oh.