‘Beetlejuice Beetlejuice’ tops box office for third week

LOS ANGELES (AP):

It’s a three-peat for Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.

The Tim Burton legacy sequel to his 1988 horror comedy topped the North American box office charts for the third straight weekend with $26 million in ticket sales, according to studio estimates Sunday.

It edged out the animated new release Transformers: One, which brought in $25 million. The Optimus Prime origin story from Paramount Pictures features the voices of Chris Hemsworth, Brian Tyree Henry and Scarlett Johansson.

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, a Warner Bros. release with Michael Keaton and Winona Ryder returning as stars, has earned more than $226 million domestically in its three weeks after a monster opening of $110 million – the third best of the year – and a second weekend of $51.6 million.

Third place went to the James McAvoy horror Speak No Evil, which came in at $5.9 million in its second week for a total of $21.5 million.

On the whole, the box office was in a quiet phase that is expected to break when Joker: Folie à Deux dances its way onto the big screen on October 4.

The year’s second-highest grosser Deadpool & Wolverine remained in the top 5 in its ninth weekend with another $3.9 million and a domestic total of $627 million. Only Pixar’s Inside Out 2 has earned more.

The Demi Moore-starring, Coralie Fargeat-directed body horror, The Substance, which made a splash at the Cannes Film Festival, brought in $3.1 million on limited screens in its first weekend for the sixth spot.

The Daily Wire movie Am I Racist? – in which conservative columnist Matt Walsh goes undercover as a “DEI trainee” – stayed in the top 10 after a fourth place finish last week, earning $2.9 million for seventh place and a two-week total of $9 million.