The Conjuring 2 Tops Box Office

Horror sequel The Conjuring 2 racked up $40.4 million and topped the box office in its debut, according to studio estimates from comScore. Starring Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga as a paranormal-investigating couple, director James Wan’s film nearly matched the $41.9 million opening of the original hit in 2013.

Finishing second at the domestic box office was Universal's Warcraft, which underperformed based on what is expected from a film carrying a $160 million production budget. With an estimated $24.35 million weekend, the video game adaptation only managed $7,164 per theatre and saw a 27.1% drop from its $10.7 million opening day to Saturday.

The weekend's third new wide release was Lionsgate and Summit's Now You See Me 2, which finished in third position with an estimated $23 million. The budget for the sequel is reported to be $15-25 million above the $75 million spent on the original, which opened three years ago with $29.3 million before finishing with over $117 million domestically and over $350 million worldwide.

In fourth position is last weekend's #1 film, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows, which dipped 58.1% in its second weekend for an estimated $14.8 million this weekend as its climbs to just over $61 million. X-Men: Apocalypse is now on no. 5, which has now amassed $136.3 million domestically, enough to climb ahead of The Wolverine and become the eight highest grossing X-Men release of all-time out of nine.

wp.com