Weekend Box Office: September 13-15

Courtesy of Box Office Mojo:

1.  Insidious Chapter 2 - $41 million

2.  The Family - $14.5 million

3.  Riddick - $7.5 million

4.  Lee Daniels' The Butler - $5.8 million

5.  We're The Millers - $5.4 million

6.  Instructions Not Included - $4.2 million

7.  Planes - $3 million

8.  One Direction: This Is Us - $2.5 million

9.  Elysium - $2 million

10.  Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters - $1.8 million

Summer is over and the Halloween decorations are going up, so folks were in the mood for a horror film this weekend, as Insidious Chapter 2 blew away expectations with an estimated $41 million.  The sequel earned three times the opening weekend of the first Insidious film (that opened with $13.3 million in 2010), and with a budget reported at around $5 million, its undisputably a huge hit.

Also opening this weekend was the mob comedy The Family, which opened with a decent $14.5 million.  Nothing earth-shattering, but not a flop either.  Riddick, which floundered even first place last weekend, dropped more than 60% in its second weekend and earned just $7.5 million. 

Lee Daniels' The Butler earned another $5.8 million this weekend, and is expected to pass $100 million domestically today.  We're the Millers kept going strong, earning another $5.4 million to bring its domestic total to $131 million.  Spanish-language success story Instructions Not Included continues to do well, earning $4.2 million.

Next weekend brings the kidnapping drama Prisoners, and James Gandolfini's final film, Enough Said.