Thriller about a successful woman who begins a romance with a dangerous new lover narrowly outpaces new horror by Sixth Sense director to hit No 1

Thriller romance The Perfect Guy narrowly beat out M Night Shyamalan chiller The Visit to top the US box office at the weekend with an opening bow of $26.7m (£17.2m).

David M Rosenthal’s film centres on a successful lobbyist, played by Sanaa Lathan, who embarks on a relationship with a dangerous new beau after breaking up with her boyfriend. Michael Ealy and Morris Chestnut co-star.

The Visit, which Shyamalan financed himself for just $5m following the failure of Will and Jaden Smith sci-fi bomb After Earth last year, took $25.7m on opening, the year’s top horror bow. The film centres on two teenagers who set off to visit their grandparents, who they have never met before, at their remote farmhouse. It could yet be hailed as this weekend’s No 1 once final estimates are confirmed.

The Visit review – a shocker from M Night Shyamalan, and not the good kind Read more

Reviewers have tentatively suggested The Visit marks something of a return to form for the Sixth Sense director, whose films have struggled to receive critical traction since 2002’s Signs. However, The Observer’s Mark Kermode delivered a scathing verdict on the film, which he described as an “endurance test”.

Kermode opined: “There’s a terrible sense of dread lurking in M Night Shyamalan’s latest. Sadly, it has nothing to do with the boring shaky-cam story about two incandescently irritating teenagers spending some Grimm-lite time with their unhinged grandparents. Instead, it’s the horrible realisation that the film-maker who was lauded for The Sixth Sense, defended for The Village, and just about tolerated for The Happening, may actually have made a movie worse than Lady in the Water.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The Perfect Guy - video review

Last week’s top film, the Christian family drama War Room, slipped to third place this time around with $7.4m for a three-week total of $39.1m. The top five was rounded out by Robert Redford-led drama A Walk in the Woods, with $5m in its second week for a total of $20m, and the spy sequel Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation, with another $4.2m for a seventh-week total of $188.1m. Christopher McQuarrie’s film, which sees Tom Cruise returning as daredevil secret agent Ethan Hunt, also opened spectacularly in China this weekend with $86m on debut.

The only other film to make this week’s top 10 was the Christian drama 90 Minutes in Heaven, which scored just $2.1m to open in ninth place despite a relatively high-profile cast. The Star Wars prequels’ Hayden Christensen plays Baptist minister Don Piper, who finds himself temporarily in the afterlife following a near-fatal car crash, while Kate Bosworth portrays his wife, Eva. Piper’s book about his experiences, also titled 90 Minutes in Heaven, has sold more than 6m copies.

North American box office 11-13 September

1. The Perfect Guy, $27.7m

2. The Visit, £25.6m

3. War Room, $7.4m Total: $39.1m

4. A Walk in the Woods, $4.7m Total: $19.9m

5. Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation, $4.1m Total: $188.1m

6. Straight Outta Compton, $4m Total: $155.7m

7. No Escape, $2.8m Total: $24.1m

8. The Transporter Refuelled, $2.7m Total: $13.3m

9. 90 Minutes in Heaven, $2.1m

10. Un Gallo con Muchos Huevos, $1.9m Total: $6.6m