Box office: 'A Quiet Place Part II' creeps back into top spot; becomes first COVID release to cross $100M in U.S.

A Quiet Place Part II continues to prove that the domestic box office is on the mend following a year of pandemic stagnation. After it was deposed by the third Conjuring movie — The Devil Made Me Do It — last weekend, John Krasinski and Paramount's long-awaited horror sequel reclaimed the top domestic spot with an added $11.65 million, pushing its North American total past $108 million.

In fact, the movie is the first pandemic-era release to cross the $100 million-mark in the U.S. (via Variety) — accomplishing the noteworthy feat in three short weeks. Part II is closing in on $200 million worldwide after an extra $16 million brought the film's international gross to just over $75 million.

"It's quite an amazing feat for A Quiet Place Part II to be generating huge pre-COVID style numbers, and this with less than 80% of theaters open, plus reduced capacity that doesn't seem to be slowing down this horror juggernaut one bit," Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Comscore, tells SYFY WIRE. "The theatrical first release strategy has paid off big as word-of-mouth is creating an ongoing FOMO [fear of missing out] factor that is driving fans to the multiplex week-after-week."

Sony's Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway, which finally opened at more than 3,300 domestic sites after several COVID-related delays, took third place (Warner Bros.' In the Heights came in second) with $10.4 million. That's about $15 million less than the North American opening of the first movie in 2018, which is to be expected in the current climate. The family-friendly follow-up, which sees James Corden back in the title role of the rebellious hare, has performed better overseas, where it's on the verge of hitting $60 million internationally.

The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It fell into fourth with a sophomore total of $10 million domestically. After two weeks of playing on North American screens, the horror threequel (directed by The Curse of La Llorona's Michael Chaves) has grossed $43.77 million. Globally, the film has surpassed $111 million, thanks to a current international haul of $68 million.

Hidden Empire Film Group’s horror-comedy, The House Next Door: Meet the Blacks 2, also opened to just over $1 million from 420 theaters. Directed and co-written by Deon Taylor (Fatale), the project puts a light-hearted spin on the vampire-next-door trope seen in such genre classics as Fright Night and Salem's Lot.

A pair of domestic holdovers — Disney's Cruella  (now in its third weekend) and DreamWorks' Spirit Untamed (now in its second weekend) — hit $55.95 million and $10.90 million, respectively.

In markets abroad, Universal's F9 continues to prove that it is one of the biggest box office success stories of the COVID-19 era. After just three weeks, the ninth chapter in the high-octane Fast Saga is fast (pun intended) closing in on a whopping $300 million after $268 million in sales from eight territories abroad (about $212 million of that number comes from China). The real test will come when the massive tentpole arrives in the U.S. on Friday, June 25.