September 17, 2013 by Vinnie Leduc
Insidious: Chapter 2 took advantage of the Friday the 13th weekend and totally possessed the domestic box office. Nearly beating last year’s Hotel Transylvania for biggest September opening ever, the low-budget horror sequel scared up $40.3 million in its debut, which is over three times more than the original’s initial take and just shy of how much director James Wan’s The Conjuring opened to only a couple months ago.
The success of The Conjuring and Insidious: Chapter 2 is the second time ever that a director’s enjoyed two debuts of at least $40 million in the same year; the only other time was when the Wachowski brothers sibilings released the Matrix sequels a decade ago. The opening of Insidious: Chapter 2, which also topped Olympus Has Fallen‘s as distributor FilmDistrict’s biggest ever, is the fourth highest all-time for a horror movie, only trailing Paranormal Activity 3, The Conjuring, and Paranormal Activity 2.
Luc Besson’s action comedy The Family opened in a distant second, knocking down reigning champ Riddick, one of our most anticipated movies of the year, to third place. Oscar buzzy historical drama The Butler took fourth, just ahead of drug-smuggling comedy We’re the Millers in its sixth weekend, which rounded out the top five.
Here are the numbers for the top five over the weekend via BOM:
- Insidious: Chapter 2 — Weekend Gross: $40.3 million — Total Gross: $40.3 million (new)
- The Family — Weekend Gross: $14.0 million — Total Gross: $14.0 million (new)
- Riddick — Weekend Gross: $6.8 million — Total Gross: $31.1 million (#1 last week)
- Lee Daniels’ The Butler — Weekend Gross: $5.5 million — Total Gross: $100.0 million (#2 last week)
- We’re the Millers — Weekend Gross: $5.4 million — Total Gross: $131.6 million (#4 last week)
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