The Nun 2 and A Haunting In Venice virtually tied for the number one spot in US and Canadian cinemas over the weekend – with a slight edge carrying the horror sequel over the Hercule Poirot mystery, according to studio estimates.
In its second weekend of release, Warner Bros’ The Nun 2, a spinoff from the studio’s lucrative Conjuring franchise, grossed 14.7 million US dollars (£11.9 million).
If numbers hold, that will give The Nun 2 (up to 56.5 million dollars (£45.6 million) total and 158.8 million dollars (£128 million) worldwide) – the top spot at the box office for a second straight week.
Very close behind was A Haunting In Venice, Sir Kenneth Branagh’s third Agatha Christie adaptation, following 2017’s Murder On The Orient Express and 2022’s Death On The Nile.
Final box office figures will be released on Monday.
After the successful run of Murder On The Orient Express” (352.8 million dollars (£284.8 million) worldwide against a production budget of 55 million dollars (£44.4 million)) and the less-stellar global haul of Death On The Nile (137.3 million dollars (£110.9 million against a 90 million dollar (£72.7 million) budget), the sluggish start for A Haunting In Venice may have signalled the death knell for Sir Kenneth’s detective.
The 20th Century Studios film, released by Disney, grossed 22.7 million dollars (£18.3 million) internationally.
And it cost less than its predecessor, carrying a production budget of about 60 million dollars (£48.4 million).
The Equalizer 3, starring Denzel Washington, dropped to third place with 7.2 million dollars (£5.8 million).
In three weeks, it has grossed 73.7 million dollars (£59.5 million) domestically and 132.4 million dollars (£106.9 million) worldwide.
Fourth place went to My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3 with 4.7 million dollars (£3.8 million) in its second weekend of release.
It was one of the quietest weekend in cinemas this year, as Hollywood — which has spent much of the last two weeks promoting its films at the Venice, Telluride and Toronto film festivals — treads water in between the summer smashes of Barbie and Oppenheimer and awaits its top autumn movies.
Some of those, like Dune: Part Two, have already been postponed until next year due to the Sag-Aftra and WGA strikes.
One anticipated autumn film, Sony’s Dumb Money, opted for a platform release, debuting in eight cinemas over the weekend before expanding next weekend and going wide on September 29.
The film, a rollicking dramatisation of the GameStop stock frenzy, grossed 217,000 dollars (£175,198), for a per-location average of about 27,000 dollars (£21,799).
Barbie also remains in the picture.
For the ninth straight weekend, Greta Gerwig’s box-office sensation ranked in the top five films.
It added four million dollars (£3.2 million) to bring its domestic total to 625 million dollars (£504.6 million) and its global haul to 1.42 billion dollars (£1.15 billion).
Meanwhile, Oppenheimer has reached 912.7 million dollars (£737 million), making it the highest grossing biopic ever, passing Bohemian Rhapsody.
