The horror film Insidious: Chapter 2 triumphed at the weekend box office with an estimated total of $41 million, which came close to topping the all-time September opening record of $42.5 million set last year by Hotel Transylvania.  With Insidious capturing the younger crowd and the Luc Besson Mafia comedy The Family attracting older views, the overall box office was up a solid 16.5% versus the same frame last year when Resident Evil: Retribution debuted with $21 million.
 
The success of Insidious: Chapter 2 testifies to the box office appeal of horror movies, especially at this time of year.  Produced for just $5 million, the Insidious sequel benefited from a massive advertising campaign, which included a major outreach to the increasingly important Hispanic audience, and also from its PG-13 rating, which allowed teenagers to indulge in their penchant for horror films.  Viewers under 25 made up a whopping 62% of the opening weekend audience with 19% of the crowd under 18.  Critics hated Insidious: Chapter 2, giving it just a 36% positive rating, but critics don’t matter much with horror films, and audiences gave the film a solid "B+" CinemaScore, so its decline might not be as precipitous as that of other low budget, heavily-hyped horror films.
 
Second place went to another newcomer, Luc Besson’s dark Mafia comedy The Family, which posted a set of demographics that was nearly the inverse of Insidious: Chapter 2.  Just over 83% of the opening weekend crowd was over 25.  Produced for $30 million, The Family, which has a cast that includes Robert De Niro, Tommy Lee Jones, and Michelle Pfeiffer, has some solid prospects overseas, but its opening has to be a bit disappointing.  Reviews for the film were dismal (just 33% positive on Rotten Tomatoes) and audiences gave the movie a poor "C" CinemaScore, which doesn’t augur well for its long term prospects.

Weekend Box Office (Studio Estimates): September 13-15, 2013
	Film	Weekend Gross	Screens	Avg./ Screen	Total Gross	Wk#
1	Insidious Chapter 2	$41,050,000	3,049	$13,463	$41,050,000	1
2	The Family	$14,500,000	3,091	$4,691	$14,500,000	1
3	Riddick	$7,013,000	3,117	$2,250	$31,280,000	2
4	Lee Daniels' The Butler	$5,582,000	3,239	$1,723	$100,041,000	5
5	We're the Millers	$5,415,000	3,238	$1,672	$131,602,000	6
6	Instructions Not Included	$4,250,000	933	$4,555	$26,581,000	3
7	Planes	$3,066,000	2,739	$1,119	$82,984,000	6
8	One Direction: This is Us	$2,400,000	2,300	$1,043	$26,887,000	3
9	Elysium	$2,050,000	1,720	$1,192	$88,388,000	6
10	Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters	$1,825,000	1,638	$1,114	$62,035,000	6

Last week’s box office champ Riddick dropped 63.1%, not an unusual sort of fall these days for big time action films.  Riddick earned $7 million and brought its domestic total to $31 million.  With a cost of just $38 million, it appears that Riddick will be profitable, especially if foreign sales come in as expected.
 
No other holdover in the top ten dropped more than 50%.  Lee Daniel’s The Butler crossed the $100 million mark in its fifth weekend of release.  The R-rated comedy We’re The Millers continues its strong run adding $5.4 million in its six weekend, which brings its domestic total to $131 million, still a long way from the summer of 2013’s leading R-rated comedy The Heat’s $158 million.  Also six weeks on the charts, Disney’s Planes keeps soaring along (at least until Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs debuts on the 27th).
 
Check back next week to see if a trio of new films including the dark thriller Prisoners starring Hugh Jackman as a man desperate to save his kidnapped six-year-old daughter, the breakdancing  extravaganza Battle of the Year, or the Ron Howard-directed Formula One racing drama Rush can unseat Insidious: Chapter 2.