As though 2020 didn’t bring horrors enough, North American moviegoers appear to ache for additional: Fright film “The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It” acquired an expected $24 million this end of the week to top the box office as an ever-increasing number of theaters return after a bleak year.

The new Warner Bros. release, the most recent in the “Conjuring” franchise, carried aside a weekend ago’s breakthrough box office leader, “A Quiet Place: Part II.”

Its outcome was viewed as particularly sure for Warner since “Conjuring” is now accessible online to HBO Max subscribers at no additional cost. The film again has Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga as paranormal examiners grappling with demonic nastiness.

“Quiet Place,” another scare movie, directed by John Krasinski and featuring his wife Emily Blunt, took in $19.5 million for the Friday-through-Sunday period, down from a weekend ago’s $48 million yet viewed as a strong outcome with 75% of theaters presently open.

The Paramount film, about a family in a post-apocalyptic world frequented by savage yet generally unseen monsters, is scheduled to become the fastest film to cross the $100 million mark in North America since Covid-19 plunged the world – and the film industry – into emergency.

“The landscape is becoming competitive again,” Hollywood Reporter quoted Warner executive Jeff Goldstein as saying, “which is a great sign of things to come in the summer and fall.”

In third place was Disney’s family-friendly “Cruella,” an origin story dependent on its popular “One Hundred and One Dalmatians.” With Emma Stone as the sneering title villain, the live-action film took in $11.2 million.

Fourth spot went to Universal’s computer-animated “Spirit Untamed” at $6.2 million. Isabela Merced voices a young girl who becomes a wild mustang named Spirit. Jake Gyllenhaal and Julianne Moore additionally star.

In fifth spot, for the second consecutive week, was Disney’s computer-animated fantasy “Raya and the Last Dragon,” at $1.3 million. Its for the most part Asian-American cast incorporates the voices of Awkwafina and Sandra Oh.

Rounding out the top 10 were:

“Wrath of Man” ($1.3 million)

“Spiral” ($890,000)

“Demon Slayer the Movie: Mugen Train” ($750,000)

“Godzilla vs. Kong” ($463,000)

“Dream Horse” ($230,000)