A Haunting in Venice Looks to Dethrone The Nun II at the Box Office on Opening Weekend

Kenneth Branagh is bringing Agatha Christie's beloved detective Hercule Poirot to the big screen for the third time this weekend. After directing and starring in both Murder on the Orient Express and Death on the Nile, Branagh will take on the dual roles once again for A Haunting in Venice, the first film in the series to take on the horror genre. The film arrives in theaters this weekend, where it will compete for the number one spot at the box office.

You know fall is in full swing when two scary movies are going head-to-head for the top spot at the weekend box office. According to Deadline, A Haunting in Venice is looking to open around $12 million at the domestic box office this weekend. That will put it in direct competition with The Nun II, which won last weekend and could see a substantial drop in week two.

An opening around $12 million for A Haunting in Venice would be in line with Branagh's last Christie adaptation. Death on the Nile opened to $12.8 million last year, though it carried a much bigger budget. Murder on the Orient Express remains the crown jewel of the series with a $28.6 million opening weekend back in 2017. 

A Haunting in Venice Is a Departure for the Series

A Haunting in Venice will be the first of Branagh's Hercule Poirot films to really make serious changes from the source material. The film is being adapted from the novel Hallowe'en Party, and there are quite a few differences between the two.

"This is a very different adaptation [compared] to the first two," James Pritchard, CEO of the Agatha Christie estate, told ComicBook.com in a recent interview. "The first two were very straight faithful adaptations of the original titles, both big famous books. This is very different."

"Michael Green from the start wanted to use Hallowe'en Party as more of a launch pad for something," Pritchard continued. "He wanted to use it as a way of creating a different tone. He felt that having made those first big films, famous stories into big films, that he wanted to do something different. He wanted to surprise our audience."

"This is a very different movie in tone. It has elements of horror. It has elements of suspense. It also departs quite a long way from the original story, both in terms of storyline but obviously also in terms of location," Pritchard added. "The book is set in an English country village. This is obviously set in Venice. He has changed the story in, in quite a dramatic fashion, but it is at heart a murder mystery and that is the core of the story."

A Haunting in Venice opens in theaters this weekend.