Sony Screen Gems’ The Exorcism of Emily Rose brought the supernatural genre out of its slump over the weekend, scaring up an estimated $30.2 million to claim the top spot at the box office. The film, which features creepy visual effects by Captive Audience Prods., also put an end to the box office reign of the summer comedy, characterized this year by the likes of The 40-Year-Old Virgin and The Wedding Crashers.
Despite the inspired pairing of Samuel Jackson and Eugene Levy, New Line Cinema’s The Man, only managed to make around $4 million in its debut frame. Released in nearly 1,000 fewer theaters than the weekend’s top draw, the buddy cop comedy landed at No. 6 behind a handful of holdovers.
Now in its fourth week, Universal’s The 40-Year-Old Virgin is still getting some in the No. 2 spot with around $8 million, keeping just ahead of last week’s box office champ, 20th Century Fox’s Transporter 2. The actioner starring Jason Statham made like a stuntman and took a 56% fall in its second week, landing in third place with an estimated $7.2 million.
Focus Features’ political thriller, The Constant Gardner, and DreamWorks airborne spine-tingler, Red Eye, round out the weekend’s top five with approximately $4.8 million and $4.6 million respectively.
The success of Exorcism bodes well for the raft of horror flicks scheduled to hit theaters in time for Halloween. These include Rogue Pictures’ Cry Wolf, Dimension’s Venom, Sony’s remake of The Fog, Universal’s Doom and Lions Gate’s Saw II. Also ripe for the holiday are Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride, opening wide on Sept. 23 via Warner Bros., and Aardman Animation’s Wallace & Gromit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit, being released by DreamWorks on Oct. 7.
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