It movie vs Kingsman 2: Which movie WON the box office race this weekend?

The Andy Muschietti-directed film had a strong third weekend at the American box office, helping cement its status as the most successful horror film of all time.

This weekend it slips to No2 with another $30 million – putting its domestic running total at a brilliant $266 million.

Analysts are now wondering if it can top $500 million by the time its theatrical run comes to an end.

However, the movie that’s replaced it at the summit is none other than Kingsman: The Golden Circle; finishing with an estimated $39 million, according to reports.

There’s good news and bad news there: firstly, it trumps the opening haul of first movie Kingsman: The Secret Service, which had $36.2 million in its opening frame.

The bad news, however, is that it’s below estimations – but only just. While some forecasters had put it comfortably between the $40 and $50 million marks, studio bosses went on the record to say they were hoping to at least cross $40 million – which it seems it has (barely) failed to do.

Still, its performance doesn’t seem to have been hindered too much by bad reviews: feedback for this movie has been much cooler than the acclaim earned by its predecessor, but CinemaScore audiences were kinder in giving it a B+ score on the A+ to F scale.

And both It and Kingsman 2 fared substantially better than the Lego Ninjango Movie, which limped to a $21.2 million haul against a $70 million budget.

For context, studio bosses had hoped it would edge much closer to $30 million.

Elsewhere, American Assassin has dropped to No4 in its second week, with $6.25 million.

Jennifer Lawrence’s panned Mother! and Reese Witherspoon’s Home Again are neck-and-neck to round out the Top 5, each on around $3.2 million.