Despite lukewarm reviews (at least in comparison to the critical acclaim of the first movie), James Wan's horror sequel 'The Conjuring 2' easily came out on top in the weekend's (June 10th-12th) box office numbers, almost doubling the gross total of number two 'Warcraft' which hasn't seen the domestic success to match its hype.

The Conjuring 2The Conjuring 2 has smashed the box office

The return of Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson as ghosthunters Ed and Lorraine Warren in this re-telling of the Enfield Poltergeist case was met warmly by critics, but the lack of slow-burning horror and surge of cheap jump-scares left people feeling a little disappointed. Nonetheless, it has a respectable 75% on Rotten Tomatoes and now it has the domestic box office figures to match.

'The Conjuring 2' follows Ed and Lorraine Warren as they travel to London to tackle a particularly unpleasant set of paranormal circumstances, that all settle around the youngest daughter Janet. Is evil really at work here? Or is it all just a game orchestrated by a child much cleverer than she first appears?

Watch the trailer for 'The Conjuring 2' here:


 

The film opened at the weekend with a gross of $40.4 million, very nearly matching its numbers from the first movie which only totalled $1.5 million more. To put some context with those numbers (in case you're thinking, 'So what? Last year's 'Jurassic Park' broke records with $208.8 million'), 2013's 'The Conjuring' brought the second biggest opening weekend for a horror film ever, after 'Paranormal Activity 3'.

Needless to say, the second movie on the list of top takings at the box office was very far behind with just $24.4 million. For a budget of $160 million, that's pretty poor going for 'Warcraft', but thankfully it's doing much better overseas. So far its scooped $300 million in global revenue including $144 million in China.

More: Read our review of 'Warcraft'

Number three was another sequel, 'Now You See Me 2', which also did well in comparison to its 2013 predecessor which earned $29.4 million on its opening weekend.