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The box office over-performance of Sony’s Insidious: The Red Door sparked off a heated debate on social media over the weekend, as people wondered why studios don’t invest in more mid-budget movies, as opposed to funneling $300 million into movies like Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. Both are fifth installments in long-running franchises — one is clearly more beloved than the other — but this week, the underdog pulled off something of an upset.
Insidious 5 took the top spot at the domestic box office, with fantastic $32.6 million haul across three days, including the $5 million that it grossed in Thursday previews. This is the second-best weekend debut for the franchise, behind Insidious: Chapter 2, which made $40 million in its first three days and ended its global run with just over $160 million. The franchise began on a rather modest note, with the first Insidious movie — directed by James Wan — tapping out with just under $100 million worldwide.
Appetite for horror has certainly remained strong in the post-pandemic years, even as big tentpoles such as Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, The Flash and Shazam! Fury of the Gods raise questions about audience interest in superhero cinema. Insidious 5 defied mixed reviews this weekend, as it exceeded projections by nearly $10 million. Directed by star Patrick Wilson in his feature filmmaking debut, the movie is currently sitting at a “rotten” 37% score on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. Collider’s Nate Richard, on the other hand, called it the franchise’s most “human” installment.
Slipping to the number two spot after an underwhelming opening weekend seven days ago, Disney’s mega-budget Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny was able to gross only $26.5 million. This represents a second weekend drop of 55%. Globally, the film passed the $200 million mark, but isn’t remotely in the clear, considering its huge $300 million production cost. Marketed as star Harrison Ford’s final outing as the iconic adventurer, Dial of Destiny was premiered at the Cannes Film Festival some weeks ago, where it received mostly negative reviews. Stateside reaction has been marginally better, but that doesn’t seem to have affected its box office trajectory.
Can You Spot the Outlier in This Weekend’s Top Five List?
The standout performance this weekend, besides Insidious 5, came from the faith-based film Sound of Freedom, which debuted earlier this week to strong response from its target audience of right-wing conspiracy theorists. The movie actually topped the July 4 box office, and added an estimated $16.9 million this weekend, taking its running domestic total to a phenomenal $38 million in under a week. The fourth and fifth spots were claimed by two animated movies that have had very different runs at the box office. Coming in at number four was Pixar’s Elemental, which has stabilized itself thanks to strong word of mouth after a concerning opening weekend haul, which ranked among Pixar’s worst ever. The movie added $9.4 million this weekend, taking its running domestic haul to $109 million. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, on the other hand, has had an amazing run so far, as it added $7.7 million in its sixth weekend of release. The movie also passed the $350 million mark yesterday.
Debuting outside the top five was the R-rated comedy Joy Ride, which made under $6 million this weekend. This is less than half of what the Jennifer Lawrence-starrer No Hard Feelings debuted with a couple of weeks ago, signaling a renewed interest in R-rated studio comedies. You can watch our interview with Insidious 5 producers Wan and Jason Blum here, and stay tuned to Collider for more updates.
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