Jordan Peele's 'Us' broke horror movie records as it topped the weekend American box office with $70.3 million.

Jordan Peele

Jordan Peele

The fright fest starring Lupita Nyong'o and Winston Duke banked the huge sum at the domestic box office and now holds the title for the biggest opening weekend for an original horror movie.

The movie - which is Jordan's second stint in the director's chair following 2017's thriller 'Get Out' - is now the third best horror opening of all time after 2018's 'Halloween' sequel and 2017's reboot of Stephen King's 'It'.

The film - which premiered at the South By Southwest Film Festival in Austin, Texas earlier this month - has been universally praised by critics with a 95 per cent rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

'Get Out' - which starred Daniel Kaluuya and Allison Williams - made $33.4 million during its first weekend and eventually grossed a total of $176 million in North America and scored an impressive 98 per cent rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

The 40-year-old filmmaker previously revealed that although his hit 2017 satirical horror 'Get Out' was made with $5 million, he thought it was "key" to have a bigger budget for 'Us' - which was made with $20 million - as it allowed him more "freedom" to tell the story he wanted to on screen.

Peele said: "I had about five times the budget on this one, which by movie standards is still not that expensive of a film. That was the key for me. Otherwise, I may not have had my freedom."

"As a filmmaker, I also thrive with a certain restriction. I didn't want to overreach with the budget and all of a sudden have a studio being responsible on me."

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