Warner Brothers and New Line’s ‘The Nun’ further solidified the box office power of ‘The Conjuring’ franchise. In fact, after earning $54 million on its opening weekend, this marks a series high. With the $77.5M it earned overseas, that brings its total to $131.5M. This also marks the fifth week in a row that Warner Brothers has had the top movie, following the successes of ‘The Meg’ and ‘Crazy Rich Asians’. Don’t expect it to hang onto the top spot though, as critics and audiences both hated it– 28% on Rotten Tomatoes and a weak C CinemaScore. But in this day and age, it’s unusual for a movie to open this strongly with such negative reaction. Usually, audiences take to social media after the first screening and poison the box office. But despite the weak audience reaction, ‘The Nun’ performed well throughout the weekend.
WB’s romantic comedy ‘Crazy Rich Asians’ ruled for three weeks but has now slipped down to #2. Performing better than expected is ‘Peppermint’, the new action movie starring Jennifer Garner. This movie got even worse reviews than ‘The Nun’– 13% on Rotten Tomatoes– but audiences were kinder, giving it a B+ CinemaScore. Earning $13.3M, it landed the #3 spot, but there is talk that it could have done even better, but STX didn’t shell out much to promote it. As it stands, ‘Peppermint’ is drawing a largely female audience as well as an older demographic. Some long-term fans are happy to see Garner back in ‘Alias’ mode with another action role, but naysayers are tired of the person-with-a-gun vigilante genre, akin to the ‘Taken’ formula. (‘Peppermint’ was directed by Pierre Morel, who helmed the first ‘Taken’ movie.)
Here is the Top 5:
- The Nun (New Line/Warner Brothers) – $54M
- Crazy Rich Asians (Warner Brothers) – $13.6M
- Peppermint (STX) – $13.3M
- The Meg (Warner Brothers) – $6M
- Searching (Sony) – $4.5M
Considering that audiences aren’t enjoying ‘The Nun’, don’t expect it to stay #1 next week. That honor will likely fall on ‘The Predator’. Also opening next weekend is the comedy ‘A Simple Favor’ directed by Paul Feig. Check back to see how things work out.
Source: Deadline
