'Annabelle' dominates the weekend box office

"Annabelle" (AP)

The box-office downturn is getting scary, but that didn't stop the horror sequel "Annabelle: Creation" from debuting with $35 million in North America over the weekend, according to final figures Monday.

The Warner Bros.-New Line Cinema release came just shy of matching the film's predecessor, "Annabelle," which opened with $35 million in 2014. Both films are spinoffs from the two previous "The Conjuring" movies.

Despite the steady debut for "Annabelle: Creation," the August swoon at theaters continues. The weekend was down 31.6 percent from the same weekend last year, when "Suicide Squad" and "Sausage Party" were packing theaters. The summer box office as a whole is down 12.4 percent from 2016, according to comScore.

The top 20 movies at U.S. and Canadian theaters Friday through Sunday, followed by distribution studio, gross, number of theater locations, average receipts per location, total gross and number of weeks in release, as compiled Monday by comScore.

1. "Annabelle: Creation," Warner Bros., $35,006,404, 3,502 locations, $9,996 average, $35,006,404, 1 Week.

2. "Dunkirk," Warner Bros., $10,884,117, 3,762 locations, $2,893 average, $153,191,668, 4 Weeks.

3. "Nut Job 2: Nutty By Nature," Open Road, $8,342,311, 4,003 locations, $2,084 average, $8,342,311, 1 Week.

4. "The Dark Tower," Sony, $7,820,154, 3,451 locations, $2,266 average, $34,250,918, 2 Weeks.

5. "Girls Trip," Universal, $6,466,475, 2,303 locations, $2,808 average, $97,139,980, 4 Weeks.

6. "The Emoji Movie," Sony, $6,450,927, 3,219 locations, $2,004 average, $63,437,874, 3 Weeks.

7. "Spider-Man: Homecoming," Sony, $6,022,637, 2,607 locations, $2,310 average, $306,376,331, 6 Weeks.

8. "Kidnap," Aviron Pictures, $5,096,823, 2,418 locations, $2,108 average, $19,266,106, 2 Weeks.

9. "The Glass Castle," Lionsgate, $4,678,548, 1,461 locations, $3,202 average, $4,678,548, 1 Week.

10. "Atomic Blonde," Focus Features, $4,480,635, 2,093 locations, $2,141 average, $42,727,860, 3 Weeks.

11. "War for the Planet of the Apes," 20th Century Fox, $3,603,698, 2,098 locations, $1,718 average, $137,232,191, 5 Weeks.

12. "Despicable Me 3," Universal, $3,129,420, 2,013 locations, $1,555 average, $247,735,865, 7 Weeks.

13. "Detroit," Annapurna Pictures , $2,888,794, 3,007 locations, $961 average, $13,300,258, 3 Weeks.

14. "The Big Sick," Lionsgate, $1,463,932, 709 locations, $2,065 average, $36,407,780, 8 Weeks.

15. "Wonder Woman," Warner Bros., $1,447,475, 961 locations, $1,506 average, $402,175,560, 11 Weeks.

16. "Baby Driver," Sony, $1,441,906, 865 locations, $1,667 average, $100,033,833, 7 Weeks.

17. "Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets," STX Entertainment, $901,323, 785 locations, $1,148 average, $38,359,317, 4 Weeks.

18. "An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth To Power," Paramount, $815,947, 556 locations, $1,468 average, $2,311,608, 3 Weeks.

19. "Toilet: Ek Prem Katha," Reliance Big Entertainment PVT. Ltd., $678,532, 176 locations, $3,855 average, $678,532, 1 Week.

20. "Wind River," The Weinstein Company, $612,683, 45 locations, $13,615 average, $840,901, 2 Weeks.