LOS ANGELES, Sep. 9 (Xinhua) -- Warner Bros. and New Line's supernatural horror film "The Nun" dominated North American box office in its opening weekend with an estimated 53.5 million U.S. dollars, delivering the franchise's best debut and the second largest September opening ever.
Directed by Corin Hardy and starring Demián Bichir, Taissa Farmiga and Jonas Bloquet, "The Nun" cost a reported 22 million to produce. It is the fifth installment in "The Conjuring" film Universe. The first four installments in the interconnected franchise including 2013's "The Conjuring," 2014's "Annabelle," 2016's "The Conjuring 2" and 2017's "Annabelle: Creation" have earned over 1.1 billion dollars globally.
"The Nun" also took in a massive 77.5 million dollars in 60 overseas film market, pushing its global weekend tally to 131 million dollars, according to the studio figures collected by comScore.
This is the fifth weekend in a row that Warner Bros. has held the top spot at the North American weekend box office with the successes of "The Meg," "Crazy Rich Asians" and "The Nun." But it's questionable whether "The nun" can stay attractive at the box office with a weak "C" rating from moviegoers on CinemaScore and a mere 28 percent certified fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Warner Bros.' Asian-centric film "Crazy Rich Asians" moved to second place with an estimated 13.6 million dollars in its fourth weekend. The romantic comedy-drama film, based on Kevin Kwan's novel of the same name, had stayed atop North American box office in the previous three weekends in a row. Kwan was born in Singapore as the youngest of three boys into an established Chinese family. The "Crazy Rich Asians" inspired by his childhood in Singapore was the first of his trilogy novels. The two other titles are "China Rich Girlfriend" and "Rich People Problems."
"Crazy Rich Asians" is the first Hollywood studio film in over 25 years to feature a nearly all Asian cast since 1993's "Joy Luck Club." Directed by Chinese American filmmaker Jon M. Chu, the film stars Michelle Yeoh, Gemma Chan, Constance Wu, Ken Jeong, Harry Shum Jr., Chris Pang, Sonoya Mizuno, Jing Lusi and Awkwafina. The plot follows a young Chinese American woman who travels to meet her boyfriend's family, only to find them to be among the richest in Singapore.
"Crazy Rich Asians" has earned a total of 136.22 million dollars in North America through Sunday.
STX's action drama "Peppermint" opened third with an estimated 13.26 million dollars in its first weekend. Directed by Pierre Morel and starring Jennifer Garner, the film follows a mother who sets out for revenge against the cartel that killed her husband and daughter brutally.
Another release of Warner Bros., American-Chinese co-production "The Meg," came in fourth with an estimated 6.03 million dollars in its fifth weekend. The science fiction shark film starring English action actor Jason Statham and award-winning Chinese actress Li Bingbing has collected 131.57 million dollars in North America through Sunday.
Sony's thriller film "searching" finished fifth with an estimated 4.51 million dollars in its third weekend. The film starring John Cho follows a father trying to find his missing daughter with the help of a police detective.
