'Boo 2! A Madea Halloween' beats mediocre competition to win the weekend box office

• Tyler Perry's latest movie won the weekend box office.
• "Boo 2! A Madea Halloween" didn't face much competition.
• Other new releases like "Geostorm" and "The Snowman" performed poorly.

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What was originally just a joke by Chris Rock has turned into Tyler Perry's latest successful franchise.

"Boo 2! A Madea Halloween" opened in theaters this weekend and demolished the lackluster new releases as it won the domestic box office with an estimated $21.7 million, according to Variety.

Perry's Madea character and Lionsgate have teamed up for years to produce box office gold, and "Boo 2!" is no exception.

The original opened this time a year ago and took in a surprising $28.5 million its opening weekend (easily making back its $20 million production budget), and went on to earn $74.8 million worldwide. The sequel, with a $25 million budget, did a little less its opening weekend this time around, but easily won the weekend.

That's the other storyline: mid-October has turned into a wasteland for theatrical releases. Past box office disasters like "Rock and Kasbah" and "Jem and the Holograms" have been placed this time of year.

Basically, the studios choose this time of year to dump their unwanted titles, leaving the likes of Jason Blum's Blumhouse (its latest, "Happy Death Day," won the box office last week) and Perry to reap the rewards.

This weekend included stinkers like "The Snowman," which critics slaughtered (it received only a 9% Rotten Tomatoes rating), and the disaster movie, "Geostorm," which wasn't even screened for critics. "Geostorm" (budgeted at $120 million) took in $13.3 million, while "The Snowman" (which stars the usually dependable Michael Fassbender) only earned $3.4 million this weekend.