One of Hollywood’s most established directors, Ron Howard, an Oscar winner in 2002 for “A Beautiful Mind,” came up dreadfully short — again — at movie theaters in the United States and Canada over the weekend. Meanwhile, a director at the start of his career, Barry Jenkins, blew off the art-house doors with his “Moonlight.”

Mr. Howard’s “Inferno,” which cost Sony Pictures and LStar Capital roughly $75 million to make, not counting tens of millions in marketing costs, managed to sell only about $15 million in tickets during its first three days in theaters, according to comScore, which compiles box office data. Even more humiliating: “Inferno,” which stars Tom Hanks and Felicity Jones, was beaten by the second weekend of Tyler Perry’s low-cost “Boo! A Madea Halloween,” which repeated as the No. 1 multiplex draw.

“Boo,” the seventh installment in the Madea series, collected an estimated $16.7 million for Lionsgate, for a two-week total of $52 million.

“Inferno,” which received scorchingly bad reviews, has taken in a sturdy $135 million in two weeks of release overseas, Sony said on Sunday. But the North American movie market remains the world’s largest, and Mr. Howard has now delivered four domestic flops in a row. His last hit (“Angels & Demons”) was in 2009; since then, he has delivered “In the Heart of the Sea,” “Rush,” “The Dilemma” and, now, “Inferno.”