It’s been a remarkable year for horror films. And for genre master James Wan. INSIDIOUS: CHAPTER 2 released on Friday 13th to the tune of a Cthulu-sized $41 million weekend haul. As well as being three times higher than INSIDIOUS’s launch (and having the third best launch of any horror film ever behind PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 3 and THE CONJURING), it’s the fifth horror film of the year to open into the top spot – after MAMA, EVIL DEAD, THE PURGE and THE CONJURING – in what has been a remarkable year for a genre most famous for underperforming and generally being a little bit terrible.

Perhaps most impressively, however, it’s James Wan’s second film of the year, after THE CONJURING, to debut over $40 million. It’s only happened once before with the Wachowski brothers MATRIX mind-melters in 2003.

September is typically one of the slowest months of the year but that hasn’t stopped this week finishing up 31% higher than its respective week last year. A lot of that, obviously, is down to the stupendous business of INSIDIOUS 2 and the bewildering strength of superstition. Yes, this may be the 21st century, but that doesn’t stop the greater part of our humble Western community arbitrarily believing that a specific day is super duper evil because of reasons. It’s definitely haunted you guys.

A B+ CinemaScore bodes well for the film’s future though horror films tend be heavily front-loaded and burn out quickly. But then again, this hasn’t been a typical year for horror films, so who the hell knows!

In 2nd place, somewhere on the horizon a thousand miles away, flops the only other new release of the week THE FAMILY. With $14.5 million, it marks director Luc Besson’s second best ever opening and distributor Relativity Media’s sixth best. However, with a torrid C CinemaScore, it’ll likely crash and burn sooner rather than later. 

In its second week of release, proving that love for bald men is as fleeting as love for screaming goats, RIDDICK fell to 3rd, hemorrhaging 63% to $7.01 million meaning it should earn above it’s $38 million budget by next week. In rosier news however, THE BUTLER picked up an extra $5.6 million to scrape over the magic $100 million mark, making it the fifth film from the omnipotent Weinstein Company to break it.

Staying true to perplexing form, WE’RE THE MILLERS fell just 30% in its sixth week of release (what!?) pushing its gross to $131.6 million. Words can’t describe the Americans’ love for whimsical drug dealing.

Winning this week’s ‘Shameless Corporate Douchery’ award is Sony who released a special ‘Fan Cut’ of ONE DIRECTION: THIS IS US, helping it to pick up $2.4 million for a significantly lessened 41% dip in 8th place.

Domestic Top 10

1. Insidious: Chapter 2

2. The Family

3. Riddick

4. The Butler

5. We’re the Millers

6. Instructions Not Included

7. Planes

8. One Direction: This is Us

9. Elysium

10. Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters

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