"Boo 2! A Madea Halloween" dominates North American box office in opening weekend

Lionsgate's comedy horror film "Boo 2! A Madea Halloween" dominated North American box office with an estimated 21.65 million U.S. dollars in its opening weekend.

Directed by and starring Tyler Perry, "Boo 2! A Madea Halloween" is the sequel to "Boo! A Madea Halloween" and the tenth film in the Madea series. Perry created and performs the Madea character, a tough elderly black woman.

Diamond White, Tyler Perry (center), and Inanna Sarkis pose for a photo at 'Boo 2! A Madea Halloween' film premiere, in Los Angeles, USA, on Oct 16, 2017. [Photo: IC]

"The Tyler Perry and Madea brand is a powerful draw and with the film pegged to Halloween it was no surprise that 'Boo 2! ' won the weekend," wrote movie analyst Paul Dergarabedian at comScore in an email to Xinhua.

The film is about 25 percent behind "Boo! A Madea Halloween" which also won its opening weekend last year. According to Screen Engine/ComScore' s PostTrak, 38 percent of the moviegoers of the film are African Americans, following by Caucasians (31 percent), Hispanics (21 percent) and Asian (4 percent).

Another newcomer, Warner Bros.' environmental disaster thriller "Geostorm" opened in second place with an estimated 13.3 million U.S. dollars. Directed by Dean Devlin, the plot follows a satellite designer who tries to save the world from a storm of epic proportions caused by malfunctioning climate-controlling satellites.

The film has earned 49.6 million U.S. dollars internationally for a worldwide total to date of 62.9 million U.S. dollars.

Universal's release of Blumhouse's slasher film "Happy Death Day" moved to the third place with an estimated 9.37 million U.S. dollars in its second weekend.

American science fiction film "Blade Runner 2049" came in fourth with an estimated 7.15 million U.S. dollars in its third weekend. The sequel to the 1982 science fiction classic was co-financed by Alcon Entertainment and Sony with Warner Bros. handling domestic distribution and Sony releasing the film overseas.

Sony's biographical action drama film "Only The Brave" finished fifth with an estimated 6.01 million U.S. dollars in its opening weekend. The film tells the heroic story behind one of the worst firefighter tragedies in U.S. history.