Friday the 13th is considered one of the unluckiest days in a calendar year. However, one of this weekend’s new releases, “Insidious: Chapter 2,” opened with strong results  — “The Family” wasn’t so lucky.

FilmDistrict’s “Insidious: Chapter 2” claimed the top spot this weekend with a debut of $40.3 million. What’s especially notable about this opening is that it is more than three times as high as its predecessor, “Insidious,” which opened in 2011 with $13.3 million. But why was this sequel such an incredible improvement?

First and foremost, the horror film’s success can be credited to the excellent release date: Friday the 13th. The release date proved to be a major draw, as evidenced by the opening night’s numbers. Friday night alone made $20.2 million, which is more than half of the film’s opening weekend gross.

Combine the strategic release date with the first film’s reputation (it grossed more than $54 million domestically on a budget of $1.5 million), and you can see why the sequel was so successful.

Additionally, with a commercially friendly PG-13 rating, more young teens were able to see the film, which seemed compelling during this back-to-school month. More importantly however, the producers of the film stayed with what worked for the first film. This sequel had the same cast, director and visual aesthetic.

The opening for “Insidious: Chapter 2” is great news for director James Wan, as it marks his second successful film of the year, the first being “The Conjuring” which grossed more than $260 million worldwide thus far. With a production budget of a mere $5 million and a very good “B+” rating on CinemaScore, “Insidious: Chapter 2” should be a strong holdover and maintain profitability in the coming weeks.

Taking the second spot this weekend was Relativity Media’s “The Family,” which grossed a little more than $14 million in its opening weekend. The film stars Robert De Niro, Michelle Pfeiffer and Tommy Lee Jones, and the revered Martin Scorsese is one of the film’s executive producers. But despite the star power, the film still opened with tepid results.

The film received a mediocre “C” rating on CinemaScore, which suggests that it will not do well in the coming weeks. Though Martin Scorsese’s name was used in advertising to attract moviegoers, the lackluster reviews from critics negatively affected the film’s potential, especially since the film was targeting mature adults, who increasingly rely on critics’ reviews to see films.

Relativity Media might be able to make a small profit from the estimated $30 million it cost to make the film. But that seems increasingly unlikely.

Published on September 17, 2013 at 11:34 pm