Matt Kennedy/FilmDistrict Patrick Wilson in a scene from “Insidious: Chapter 2.â€In a brute display of the continued box-office power of micro-budgeted horror movies, “Insidious: Chapter 2†(FilmDistrict) sold an estimated $41.1 million in tickets at North American theaters over the weekend, one of the strongest results ever for a September release. Blumhouse Productions spent about $5 million to make the movie, which was directed by James Wan and starred Rose Byrne and Patrick Wilson. To compare, the first “Insidious,†made for about $1.5 million and released in April 2011, took in $13.3 million over its first three days and went on to sell $97 million in tickets worldwide.
Second place for the weekend went to “The Family†(Relativity), an R-rated Robert De Niro vehicle that cost about $30 million to make and took in $14.5 million, according to Hollywood.com, which compiles box-office data. The rest of the top five were all holdovers. Vin Diesel’s “Riddick†(Universal Pictures) sold about $7 million in tickets, for a two-week total of $31.3 million. “Lee Daniels’ The Butler†(the Weinstein Company) chugged along in fourth place, taking in $5.6 million, for a five-week total of roughly $100 million. The comedy “We’re the Millers†(Warner Brothers) was fifth, with estimated ticket sales of $5.4 million, for a six-week total of $131.6 million.
