Weekend Box Office: July 19-21

Courtesy of Box Office Mojo:

1.  The Conjuring - $41.5 million

2.  Despicable Me 2 - $25 million

3.  Turbo - $21.5 million

4.  Grown Ups 2 - $20 million

5.  Red 2 - $18.5 million

6.  Pacific Rim - $15.9 million

7.  R.I.P.D. - $12.7 million

8.  The Heat - $9.3 million

9.  World War Z - $5.2 million

10.  Monsters University - $5 million

For the second time this summer, the weekend was won by a horror movie.  The Conjuring opened with an excellent $41.5 million, which beats out the $34 million that The Purge opened with last month.  Even better, this ghost story earned an impressive "A-" CinemaScore rating from audiences, which is unusual for a horror film, and which is likely to give it some decent staying power in the weeks ahead.

The other releases this weekend may well have been haunted, as audiences seemed reluctant to show up for any of them.  The animated Turbo fared the best, opening in third place $21.5 million, but couldn't manage to topple Despicable Me 2, which held second place in its third weekend with $25 million, or come anywhere near Monsters University's $82 million opening a month ago.  Families have seemingly hit animated movie fatigue, at least from films that aren't from Pixar or feature any Minions.

That was the better news of the weekend for Ryan Reynolds, who was the voice of Turbo.  His other film opening this weekend, R.I.P.D., outright bombed with a lousy $12.7 million.  No way to put a positive spin on that one.  It's just another big-budget bomb, joining a long list of them this summer.

Red 2 opened with $18.5 million, which is just under the original Red's $21 million opening in 2010.  Like the first movie, the sequel will probably see a better life on video in a few months.

Any hopes for Pacific Rim's business to pick up were quickly dashed this weekend, as the robot/monster extravaganza dropped nearly 60% in its second weekend, earning just $15.9 million.  At just $68 million so far, it may have trouble reaching $100 million domestically, although it's already crossed that mark overseas with $110 million.

In limited release, The Way, Way Back picked up another 225 theaters and earned $2.2 million, while Fruitvale Station expanded into 34 theaters nationwide and earned $742,000.

We're not quite finished with superheroes yet, as The Wolverine arrives in theaters starting on Thursday night.  It won't have that much competition to deal with either, as the only big release also happening next weekend is the R-rated comedy, The To-Do List.