Vin Diesel’s sci-fi sequel “Riddick,” blasted to the top of the U.S. and Canadian box office this weekend, dethroning Oprah Winfrey’s three-time winner, “The Butler.”
“Riddick,” the weekend’s only new nationwide release, raked in $18.7 million in ticket sales from Friday through Sunday, while “Lee Daniels’ The Butler,” a civil-rights drama, pulled in $8.9 million, bringing the Weinstein Co. film’s total domestic haul to $91.9 million.
The first film in the Riddick series, “Pitch Black,” opened to $11.6 million in February 2000, while the second, “The Chronicles of Riddick,” opened to $24 million in summer 2004, but cost $105 million to make and only grossed a disappointing $115.8 million worldwide.
This time around, “Riddick” also fared well internationally, bringing in an additional $7.4 million from 22 markets such as the U.K. and Hong Kong.
“Instructions Not Included,” the Spanish-language film starring and directed by Mexican television actor Eugenio Derbez, grabbed third place with $8.1 million in its second week of release.
New Line’s R-rated rom-com “We’re the Millers” continued to hold ground, coming in No. 4 with $7.9 million and pushing its total to $123.8 million.
“Typically, the weekend after Labor Day is one of the slowest weekends of the year,” said Paul Dergarabedian, box-office analyst for Hollywood.com. “By Universal releasing a brand-new sci-fi movie with one of the biggest stars in the world, they took advantage of that and came out on top with the No. 1 movie. It gave the weekend a nice boost.”
Here are the Top 10 films for this weekend according to Rentrak:
1. Riddick: $18.7 million
2. Lee Daniels’ The Butler: $8.9 million
3. Instructions Not Included: $8.1 million
4. We’re the Millers $7.9 million
5. Planes: $4.3 million
6. One Direction: This Is Us: $4.1 million
7. Elysium: $3.1 million
8. Blue Jasmine: $2.7 million
9. Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters: $2.5 million
10. The World’s End: $2.3 million
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