The low-budget, heavy on the scares formula that has made horror films like “The Purge” and “The Conjuring” among the biggest hits of the years continued to reap dividends this weekend as “Insidious: Chapter 2″ trounced studio estimates and dominated the box office.
The FilmDistrict and Blumhouse Productions film opened to north of $$41 million in 3,049 locations, according to studio estimates. It had been projected to open in the $30 million range, but built up an impressive head of steam in terms of pre-sales heading into the weekend.
The numbers for the film fall just short of the $41.9 million that director James Wan’s previous effort “The Conjuring” opened to last July. The sequel’s debut far eclipses the $13.3 million that the original “Insidious” racked up in 2011.
“The Conjuring” was helped by strong reviews, but not so Wan’s latest effort. “Insidious: Chapter 2″ earned a drab 36 percent “rotten” rating on the critics aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes, but audiences gave it a solid B+ rating, according to Cinemascore. Orr said that opening the film on Friday the 13th helped get horror fans in the right spirit.
Source: The Wrap
