Warner Bros. leads studio pack for 5th straight week
LOS ANGELES » The horror movie “The Nun” has topped the domestic box office in its first weekend, scoring a best for the “Conjuring” franchise and another win for Warner Bros.
Studio estimates on Sunday say the Demian Bichir and Taissa Farmiga-led film brought in $53.5 million from 3,876 North American theaters. Internationally, it banked $77.5 million for a massive $131 million global debut. The movie, a spinoff of a character seen in “The Conjuring 2” and set in 1952 Romania, cost only $22 million to produce.
Before “The Nun,” the largest opening in the “Conjuring” universe, which includes the “Annabelle” films, was “The Conjuring’s” $41.8 million launch.
This marks the fifth consecutive weekend that a Warner Bros. movie has held first place domestically, following in the successful footsteps of “Crazy Rich Asians” and “The Meg.” It’s also the fourth weekend that the studio has held the first- and second-place spots, which is the first time this has happened in the industry in more than 25 years.
“The Nun” effectively scared “Crazy Rich Asians” into second place for the first time in its four-week run.
Third place went to the R-rated Jennifer Garner revenge movie “Peppermint,” from STXFilms, which debuted on par with expectations to $13.3 million.
“Look out,” said Paul Dergarabedian, a senior media analyst for box office tracker comScore. “This could be the biggest box office year ever.”