The Conjuring terrifies US box office but RIPD is DOA Jul 22nd 2013, 11:35
Paranormal thriller casts a spell at the top while Ryan Reynolds fails to charm in two releases and Pacific Rim is edged out
Warner Brothers's The Conjuring swept to the top of the North American charts on a solid $41.5m (£27m). The critically acclaimed haunted house story stars Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson and is directed by genre maestro James Wan.
Of perhaps greater interest were the new movies that stumbled. Universal has enjoyed a tremendous year so far, but RIPD was always going to flop. The studio switched release dates several times and announced back in February it was giving the supernatural buddy movie the retroactive 3D treatment, a desperate move that scrawls the writing on the wall in large capitals.
The movie version of the Dark Horse comics property about a dead cop (Ryan Reynolds) and his partner (Jeff Bridges) who chase all manner of supernatural quarries was aimed squarely at Men in Black territory but falls short. Unlike MIB, RIPD lacks charm, biting dialogue and memorable set pieces. It opened in seventh place on $12.8m (£8.3m) and will fade away quickly.
DreamWorks Animation's Turbo had not been tracking that well in the runup to its release and the family release debuted at No 3 on $21.5m (£14m). Reynolds stars in the voice cast and has had a terrible weekend. The Canadian made a name for himself in National Lampoon's Van Wilder 11 years ago, yet in some ways remains an unknown commodity and is not guaranteed to open a movie. He is good in ensembles (as part of the voice cast on DreamWorks Animation's smash The Croods for example, which grossed $186m [£121m] in North America and $583m [£380m] worldwide), solid as the second lead to an A-lister (Safe House, with Denzel Washington (($126m/$209m [£82.1m/£136m])), but shaky as the star of the show. R-rated comedy The Change-Up ($37m/$75m [£24m/£48m]) faltered and Warner Bros' costly Green Lantern ($116m/$203m [£75m/£132m]) was misguided. His solo performance in Buried misfired, but deserved better at the box office ($1m/$19m [£650k/£12.3m]).
That's not to say there isn't potential there. The year 2009 was a banner one for Reynolds, who played a perfectly fine foil to Sandra Bullock in global hit The Proposal ($163m/$317m [£106m/£206m]) and was memorable as Deadpool in X-Men Origins: Wolverine ($180m/$374m [£117m/£243m]). He was also excellent as part of Wesley Snipes' backing ensemble in the 2004 genre release Blade: Trinity ($52m/$129m [£33m/£84m]).
A standalone Deadpool film is in the works and that's a good thing for Reynolds. The fanboys love the character and shrieked his name several times during Saturday's Fox presentation at Comic-Con in San Diego. When asked during a panel for The Wolverine which other character he would have liked to play, Hugh Jackman immediately replied Deadpool, which is an endorsement. Now the filmmakers have to get it right. The Wolverine opens in the US on Friday.
Returning to the charts, Summit Entertainment's action release Red 2 starring Bruce Willis, Mary-Louise Parker and Helen Mirren bounced into fifth place on $18.5m (£12m), while Guillermo del Toro's Pacific Rim squats in sixth place on a worrying $68.2m (£44.4m) after two weekends but continued to do well internationally, where the movie will have to do the heavy lifting if it is to break even, let alone make a profit.
The Lone Ranger slid out of the top 10 and has coaxed a slight $81.2m (£52.9m) from audiences in three weekends. International results are mediocre thus far. The dated western has flopped with those under 35 and appears to be a big miss for Disney.
Nicolas Winding Refn's Only God Forgives premiered at the Cannes film festival back in May and caused a storm due to its stylised terror. Refn's lead man in Drive, Ryan Gosling, returns and the movie opened through The Weinstein Company's hipster label Radius-TWC on $315,000 (£205k) from 78 theatres. It's mostly a VoD and digital play, so this was pretty hot stuff.
North American top 10, 19-21 July 2013
1. The Conjuring, $41.5m –
2. Despicable Me 2, $25.1m. Total: $276.2m
3. Turbo, $21.5m. Total: $31.2m
4. Grown Ups 2, $20m. Total: $79.5m
5. Red 2, $18.5m –
6. Pacific Rim, $15.9m. Total: $68.2m
7. RIPD, $12.8m –
8. The Heat, $9.3m. Total: $129.3m
9. World War Z, $5.2m. Total: $186.9m
10. Monsters University, $5m. Total: $248.9m
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