In a photo finish ‘A Madea Halloween’ wins the box office for a second straight weekend

Man, did this quickly become the franchise no one wanted!

With an estimated $15 million over the weekend, according to Exhibitor Relations, “Inferno” the third screen adaptation of a Dan Brown novel, which started with “The Da Vinci Code” in 2006, crashed and burned at the box office this weekend.

“Inferno” is the lowest opening of the three movies ($77 million for “The Da Vinci Code;” $46.2 million for “Angels & Demons”) and is more than a 60% drop from the opening “Angels & Demons” had in 2009.

It’s also below the $20 million projection made for the movie this weekend.

Released by Sony, the adult-catered franchise starring Tom Hanks has certainly disinterested audiences since Brown’s best-selling novel “The Da Vinci Code” hit shelves in 2003.

But the same can’t be said for the long-standing Madea franchise.

Tyler Perry’s latest, “Boo! A Madea Halloween,” played spoiler last week by taking the number one spot at the box office over the Tom Cruise-starrer “Jack Reacher: Never Go Back” and this week it took down Hanks.

“Boo!” won the weekend box office for the second time in a row, taking in an estimated $16.6 million, according to Exhibitor Relations.

A strong 71% spike in ticket sales for “Boo!” on Saturday from the $4.6 million it made on Friday proved to give the Perry comedy the edge.

Though none of these figures are ground-breaking, business at the box office will certainly pick up next week as Marvel’s “Doctor Strange” hits theaters.