‘The Nun’ opens at No. 1 with series-best $53.5 million
Warner Bros. dominated the top two spot soft his weekend’ s box office (and three of the top five), marking its fifth consecutive week at the top of the charts.
“It’s extraordinary, I want to do it all the time,” said Jeff Goldstein, the studio’s distribution chief.
In first place, New Line Cinema’s horror spinoff “The Nun,” based on a character introduced in the successful “Conjuring” franchise, opened with a series-best $53.5 million, according to figures from measurement firm ComScore.
The picture, which cost about $22 million to make, came in well above analyst predictions of $36 million, a strong start for the fall movie season. “I think it’s the sub- ject matter,” Goldstein said. “… Nuns are scary.”
He attributed the success in part to a large turnout by historically Catholic Latino audiences. “It was higher on this movie dramatically thanthe other movi esint his series,” Goldstein said. “We had a 35 percent share of Hispanic audiences, as opposed to ‘Conjuring’ 1, which was 17 percent ,‘ Conjuring 2’ was 28 percent, ‘Annabelle,’ 22 percent, and ‘Annabelle’ 2, 26 percent.”
“The Conjuring,” released in 2013, and its spinoffs (including a sequel, the “Annabelle” films and now “The Nun”) have proved highly profitable at the box office, grossing upward of $1.2 billion so far. Loose ly based on the investigations of de monologists Ed and Lorraine Warren, the latest movie expands on the history of a mon- ster first introduced in “The Conjuring 2.”
Despite the huge success of “The Nun,” it is the second in the series to receive a low mark on review aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes, with a 28 percent rotten score. Italso got a C rating from audiences on CinemaScore. Despite this, Goldstein doesn’t rule out the possibility of a sequel. “I don’t know for sure ,but I would guess it, I would advocate forit,”hesaid.
Two of the studio’s other movies landed among the top five: In second place, “Crazy Rich Asians” added $13.6 million in its fourth weekend. And giant shark movie “The Meg,” now in its fifth weekend, added $6 million, landing at No. 4.
Warner Bros.’ winning streak comes less than a year after its big budget superhero team-up “Jus- tice League” disappointed at the box office. “There’s no question it’s always about content and if they’re good movies,” Goldstein said of this year’s contrasting result. “If we figure out a way to attract an audience th atis interested ino ur content, then we’ll be successful. And absent that, we wo n’tbe.”
At No .3 , STX Entertainment’s Jennifer Garner-led action thriller “Peppermint” earned $13.3 million.
Garner stars as a wo man out forv engeance after her husband and daughter are gunned down in front of her. The film, directed by “Taken” director Pierre Morel, came in within predictions of $10 million to $15 million. It earned mixed reviews from audiences a ndcriticsw it ha B-plus rating on CinemaScore and a 13 percent rotten rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
In fifth place, Sony’s “Searching,” now in its third weekend, added 802 theaters and $4.5 million, a killer hold for a film initially released on limited screens.
In limited release, Freestyle Releasing opened faith-based drama “God Bless the Broken Road” with $ 1.6 million, below expectations of $2 million to $4 million. About a wom an w ho struggles with faith after her husband is killed in Afghanistan, the film earned negative reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, with a 13 percent “rotten” rating.
This week, Fox opens the sci-fi action film “The Predator,” Lionsgate reveals the thriller “A Simple Favor,” Pure Flix debuts the drama “Unbroken: Pathto Redemption” and Studio 8 unveils the crime drama “White Boy Rick.”