Vin Diesel Trumps Oprah in The Box Office

Well, Oprah will not be happy about this. After Lee Daniels' The Butler did splendidly well at the box office these past few weekends — even beating One Direction's concert movie This is Us — the historical drama has been beaten. By Vin Diesel, no less.

Riddick, produced by and starring Diesel and directed by David Twohy, debuted this weekend to a box office of $18.67 million, becoming the first hit of the fall season. The Butler came in second with $8.9 million, with spanish-language comedy Instructions Not Included at $8.1 mill, and We're the Millers at $7.9.

Sci-fi sequel Riddick follows Diesel's title character as an intergalactic criminal who can see in the dark and scares the crap out of all his enemies. It's the third installment of the series following the character, the previous two being Pitch Black and the Chronicles of Riddick. It's been a long while since the previous two films were released (2000 for the first, 2004 for the second), and Diesel's rising profile could lead to this one doing better than both of its predecessors.

In other words, Fast and the Furious could keep beating Oprah, and we can't imagine she's too happy about that.