The Conjuring, a $20 million horror film, scared away the rest of the flicks to claimed an easy win at the box office this weekend, earning $41.5 million, according to studio estimates from hollywood.com.
The analysts’ forecasts called for $25 million at best, a second-place finish behind the latest big-studio animated offering, the $135 million Turbo.
The Conjuring, a haunted house tale starring Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga, garnered surprisingly strong reviews, including ours The word-of-mouth spread quickly about the low-budget horror film just like it did with The Purge. That movie also shocked analysts with a No. 1 debut of $34 million and has done over $64 million so far.
The welcome wasn’t so warm for the rest of weekend’s newcomers. Despicable Me 2, in its third week of release, was second with $25.1 million.
Turbo, the animated story of a snail with a need for speed starring Ryan Reynolds, took a disappointing third place with $21.5 million. The movie, which opened Wednesday, has done $31.2 million in five days.
Adam Sandler’s Grown Ups 2 was fourth with $20 million, followed by Red 2, the action film starring Bruce Willis and John Malkovich, which did $18.5 million. Analysts expected about $22 million.
The only other major newcomer, his supernatural cop thriller R.I.P.D., took seventh with $12.8 million. Final figures are due Monday.
