‘A Quiet Place’ makes some noise

John Krasinksi’s thriller tops the box office.

NEW YORK – John Krasinski’s A Quiet Place made a thunderous debut at the box office, opening with $50 million in ticket sales and rumbling to the year’s second-best weekend after Black Panther, according to studio estimates Sunday.

The thriller far exceeded expectations to land one of the top opening weekends for a horror release. It marks an unlikely breakthrough for Krasinski, who stars in the film, with wife Emily Blunt, about a family in a future dystopia populated by violent creatures with extremely acute hearing.

But it was far from the only success story of the weekend, which also saw R-rated prom-night comedy Blockers open solidly with $21.4 million; Steven Spielberg’s virtual-reality adventure Ready Player One dip only 40% with

$25.1 million in its second weekend; and period docudrama Chappaquiddick beat expectations with a debut of

$6.2 million.

For one weekend, at least, just about everything Hollywood threw at moviegoers worked. The weekend was up more than 35% from last year.

Blockers, starring Leslie Mann, John Cena and Ike Barinholtz as parents trying to prevent their daughters from losing their virginity, shrugged off a recent slump for comedies.

Continuing sales also pushed Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther further into record books. Marvel’s superhero phenom, which ranked fourth in its eighth week with $8.4 million, is now the third highest-grossing film of all time in North America with $665.35 million, comScore says, after Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Avatar, and bypassing Titanic and Jurassic World.

Faith film I Can Only Imagine, inspired by the backstory of MercyMe’s Christian hit of the same name, finished fifth with $8.35 million.

Final numbers are due Monday.