By Andrew Dalton, Entertainment Writer
LOS ANGELES (AP) --"The Exorcist: Believer" drove out all foes at the box office, but its numbers didn't entirely make heads spin.
Facing competition from no major new releases, the latest resurrection of the demonic franchise brought in $27.2 million in North America in its opening weekend for Universal Pictures and Blumhouse Productions, according to studio estimates Sunday.
That was more than the weekend take of the next three films combined. But while it nearly earned back its reported budget of $30 million in just a few days, the take for "The Exorcist: Believer" was underwhelming after the two companies paid $400 million in 2021 for the rights to a new trilogy.
Last week's top film, " Paw Patrol: The Mighty Movie," was a distant second, with $11.8 million, and has earned $38.9 million after two weekends for Paramount Pictures. Another horror sequel, "Saw X," was third for Lionsgate Films, with $8.2 million, and has brought in $32.6 million after two weekends.
Horror films made up four of the top 10, and they could see some sustained numbers as Halloween comes closer.
"It seems like the demand for the horror genre by audiences is never ending," said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for Comscore. "The communal theater experience is tailor-made for it."
The new "Exorcist" was released just shy of the 50th anniversary of the original horror classic, and it comes just two months after the death of the original film's director, William Friedkin.
Directed by David Gordon Green, who has become a legacy sequel specialist after helming a trilogy of "Halloween" films, "The Exorcist: Believer" stars "Hamilton" actor Leslie Odom Jr., with Lidya Jewett as his 13-year-old daughter.
The film got poor reviews — managing a critics score of just 23% on Rotten Tomatoes. Jake Coyle of The Associated Press was more charitable than most in his review, giving it two stars out of four for its lead performances and sure-handed direction but saying it "never manages anything like the deep terror of the original."
The release of "The Exorcist" was moved up a week to avoid competing with the juggernaut of next weekend's concert film, "Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour."
"I think they made a good call actually," Dergarabedian said. "All the oxygen is going to be sucked out of the room."
The storm of Swifties in cinemas could make for a $100 million weekend and set several new precedents for concert movies.
"This is on an order of magnitude beyond anything we've seen," Dergarabedian said.
The weekend finally saw "Barbie" fall from the box office top 10 for the first time since its July 21 release, after well over $600 million in domestic earnings and more than $1.3 billion globally.
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.
1. "The Exorcist: Believer," $27.2 million.
2. "PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie," $11.8 million.
3. "Saw X," $8.2 million.
4. "The Creator," $6.1 million.
5. "The Blind," $3.1 million.
6. "A Haunting In Venice," $2.6 million.
7. "The Nun II," $2.1 million.
8. "Dumb Money," $1.8 million.
10. "Hocus Pocus" (1993 rerelease), $1.5 million.
“Joker” Goes On A Dark and Fantastical Musical Journey–With Lady Gaga
"Joker" is a hard act to follow. Todd Phillips' dark, Scorsese-inspired character study about the Batman villain made over a billion dollars at the box office, won Joaquin Phoenix his first Oscar, dominated the cultural discourse for months and created a new movie landmark.
It wasn't for everyone, but it got under people's skin.
Knowing that it was a fool's errand to try to do it again, Phillips and Phoenix pivoted, or rather, pirouetted into what would become " Joker: Folie à Deux." The dark and fantastical musical journey goes deeper into the mind of Arthur Fleck as he awaits trial for murder and falls in love with a fellow Arkham inmate, Lee, played by Lady Gaga. There is singing, dancing and mayhem.
If Phillips and Phoenix have learned anything over the years, it's that the scarier something is, the better. So once again they rebelled against expectations and went for broke with something that's already sharply divided critics.
As with the first, audiences will get to decide for themselves when it opens in theaters on Oct. 4.
"HOW ARE YOU GOING TO GET JOAQUIN PHOENIX TO DO A SEQUEL?"
Any comic book movie that makes a billion dollars is going to have the sequel talk. But with "Joker" it was never a given that it would go anywhere: Joaquin Phoenix doesn't do sequels. Yet it turned out, Phoenix wasn't quite done with Arthur Fleck yet either.
During the first, the actor wondered what this character would look like in different situations. He and the on-set photographer mocked up classic movie posters, like "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" and "Yentl" with the Joker in them and showed them to Phillips.
"Sometimes you're just done with something and other times you have an ongoing interest,"... Read More