Insidious whips past Indy 5 to top North America box office

SONY’S horror film Insidious: The Red Door scared its way to the top of the North American box office on a slow weekend, taking in an estimated US$32.7 million, industry watcher Exhibitor Relations reported on Sunday (Jul 9).

The dark tale of astral projection and demonic possession, starring and directed by Patrick Wilson, had weak reviews. Still, for the fifth instalment of a horror franchise it enjoyed “an excellent opening”, said entertainment analyst David A Gross.

The film, a co-production of Screen Gems, Stage 6 Films and Blumhouse, dethroned Disney’s Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, which had logged weaker than expected numbers in its debut last weekend.

This fifth Indy episode, again starring Harrison Ford as a whip-cracking archaeologist, took in US$26.5 million for the Friday-through-Sunday period, a long way from recouping the film’s estimated US$295 million budget.

In third, at US$17 million, was surprise hit Sound of Freedom, a Christian action thriller from Santa Fe Films and Angel Studios.

Jim Caviezel (who once played Jesus) stars in a story based on true-life former US government agent Tim Ballard, who says he has rescued more than 100 children from Colombian sex traffickers. The film has found a niche audience among Christian conservatives.

Critics, however, say Sound plays into wild QAnon conspiracy theories about a dark international cabal kidnapping children and harvesting their blood.

While Angel Studios denies that its film warps the truth, Caviezel and Ballard have both embraced some extreme QAnon claims.

In fourth spot was Disney/Pixar’s family-friendly animation Elemental, at US$9.6 million. The cross-cultural rom-com (can fire and water ever find happiness?) has done well since a “disastrous opening”, according to Variety.

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And in fifth was Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, the second instalment in Sony’s animated take on the web-slinging superhero. It took in US$8 million.

Rounding out the top 10 were:

• Joy Ride (US$5.9 million)
• No Hard Feelings (US$5.3 million)
• Transformers: Rise of the Beasts (US$5 million)
• The Little Mermaid (US$3.5 million)
• Ruby Gillman: Teenage Kraken (US$2.8 million)

AFP