A scary 'Annabelle' leads North American box offices

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This weekend, horror prevailed on North American movie screens, with “scary as hell” film “Annabelle: Creation” pulling in 35 million US dollars in its first week, more than paying off the 15 million US dollars Warner Bros. spent on it.

Poster of "Annabelle: Creation" (2017). /Photo via IMDb.com

The estimated three-day opening take for “Annabelle,” the fourth installment in the popular “Conjuring” franchise, was considered healthy for a supernatural horror flick.

The film stars Stephanie Sigman, Talitha Bateman, Miranda Otto, Lulu Wilson and Anthony LaPaglia.

From left to right: Actresses Miranda Otto, Talitha Bateman, Lulu Wilson and Stephanie Sigman attend the premiere of 'Annabelle: Creation' on August 7, 2017, in Hollywood, California. /AFP Photo

The track record for the franchise is strong, with the two "Conjuring" films raking in more than 40 million US dollars.

David F. Sandberg directed this sequel about a dollmaker whose creation terrorizes a group of orphan girls.

For those invested in the "Conjuring" canon, it serves as a prequel to the first "Annabelle", and critics have generally given the film a thumbs up, scoring 68 percent on film site Rotten Tomatoes.

Lulu Wilson in ‘Annabelle: Creation’. /AP Photo

"Annabelle is scary as hell," said Jeff Goldstein, distribution chief at Warner Bros. "And it's exciting to see how broadly audiences enjoyed it," he said, adding that his marketing team did a fabulous job.

While this has been a weak summer overall for film, it was a good weekend for Warner Bros., which saw another of its productions, war movie “Dunkirk,” hold steady at second in the box-office race, with ticket sales of $11.4 million US dollars.

(Top photo credit: Warner Bros. Entertainment)

Source(s): AFP ,Reuters