The horror film “Barbarian” won the weekend by bringing in $10 million, according to studio estimates Sunday, as the late-summer doldrums at the box office continued.
Director Zach Cregger’s debut from Disney’s 20th Century Studios premiered at San Diego Comic-Con in July and opened Friday on 2,340 screens.“Barbarian” tells the story of a young woman who finds her Airbnb-rented house weirdly occupied by a stranger in a half-ruined section of Detroit. It goes on to subvert several horror conventions.
Coming in a distant second, but playing on just 810 screens, was “Brahmāstra: Part One: Shiva,” an Indian, Hindi-language fantasy epic from Star Studios, another subsidiary of Disney.The film written and directed by Ayan Mukerji, about a DJ named Shiva who discovers a connection with the element of fire and an ability to awaken a supernatural super-powerful weapon, earned $4.4 million in its first weekend in North America.