Box Office: North Americans Go For The Ghosts, While Foreign Audiences Go For A Tale Of Humans Battling Orcs

Audiences sure haven’t lost their taste for things that go bump in a dark theatre.

Unlike a lot of sequels this year, which have had much, much lower openings than the films that came before them, The Conjuring 2 almost matched the first film in its own franchise by earning an estimated $40.4 million this weekend.

That’s just a hair less than the $41.9 million that the first film opened to in 2013. It is also more than the $37.1 million that the prequel Annabelle opened to in 2014.

The film, which reportedly cost only $40 million to produce, has earned another $50 million overseas since Wednesday for a global total of $90.4 million to date.

Second place this week went to Warcraft, a big-budget fantasy epic that grossed only $24.4 million in North American theatres — but the film has already earned another $261.7 million overseas (more than half of that due to China, where the film has broken every first-weekend record), so it may yet be a financial success.

Third place went to Now You See Me 2, which grossed $23 million — noticeably less than the $29.4 million that the original sleeper hit opened to in 2013.

Meanwhile, in other box-office news…

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows earned $14.8 million and ranked fourth in its second week, thereby raising its domestic cume to $61 million. The film has earned another $55.3 million overseas for a global total of $116.3 million.

X-Men: Apocalypse earned $10 million and ranked fifth in its third week, thereby raising its domestic cume to $136.4 million. The film has earned another $342.1 million overseas for a global total of $478.5 million.

Me Before You earned $9.2 million and ranked sixth in its second week, thereby raising its domestic cume to $36.8 million. The film has earned another $18.4 million overseas for a global total of $55.2 million.

The Angry Birds Movie — like Warcraft, a big-budget movie designed to shore up interest in a flagging video game — earned $6.7 million and ranked seventh in its fourth week, thereby raising its domestic cume to $98.2 million. The film has earned another $213.9 million overseas for a global total of $312.1 million.

Alice through the Looking Glass earned $5.5 million and ranked eighth in its third week, thereby raising its domestic cume to $62.4 million. The film has earned another $151 million overseas for a global total of $213.4 million.

Captain America: Civil War earned $4.3 million and ranked ninth in its sixth week, thereby raising its domestic cume to $396.9 million. The film has earned another $745.5 million overseas for a global total of $1,142.4 million — which still makes it the 12th-highest-grossing film of all time worldwide.

The Jungle Book grossed $2.7 million and ranked tenth in its ninth week, thereby raising its domestic cume to $352.6 million. The film has earned another $557.2 million overseas for a global total of $909.8 million.

Love & Friendship grossed $1.5 million and ranked 14th in its fifth week, thereby raising its domestic cume to $9.5 million — the highest gross of any Whit Stillman film ever (though Box Office Mojo estimates that the $7.3 million earned by Barcelona in 1994 might be worth about $14.9 million once you adjust for inflation).

The film has earned another $1.4 million overseas for a global total of $10.9 million.

Zootopia grossed $600,000 and ranked 18th in its 15th week, thereby raising its domestic cume to $338.2 million. The film has earned another $668.7 million overseas for a global total of $1,006.9 million.

Now for a bit of extra data on Zootopia’s ranking among animated films:

In North America, the film still ranks eighth: