The ComingSoon.net Box Office Report has been updated with studio estimates for the weekend. Click here for the full box office estimates of the top 12 films and then check back on Monday for the final figures based on actual box office.
September ended with three new movies, all of which did disappointing business compared to earlier tracking and predictions that had them all opening better. No new movie grossed more than $20 million with the reunion of Oliver Stone and Michael Douglas for Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (20th Century Fox), co-starring Shia LaBeouf and Carey Mulligan, coming out on top with an estimate of $19 million in 3,565 theaters.
Zack Snyder’s PG-rated animated action-adventureLegend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole (Warner Bros.) had to settle for second place with $16.3 million in roughly the same amount of theaters, not even close to the low-end $20 million projections for the film.
To confirm the strength of The Town (Warner Bros.), Ben Affleck’s second movie as a director, last week’s #1 crime-thriller came close to beating WB’s new offering, dropping just 33% from its opening week to bring in $16 million in its second weekend. It has grossed $49 million to date and it shouldn’t have a problem making back its reported $37 million production budget.
Similarly, Will Gluck’s Easy A (Sony/Screen Gems) starring Emma Stone had a strong hold, dropping less than 40% from its opening weekend as it took fourth place with $10.7 million and $32.8 million after ten days.
The ensemble comedy You Again (Disney) starring Kristen Bell, Jamie Lee Curtis, Sigourney Weaver and Betty White tanked with just $8.3 million in 2,548 theaters, averaging roughly $3,300 per site.
The Dowdle Brothers’ elevator horror flick Devil (Rogue Pictures) took sixth place with $6.5 million and $21.7 million total.
Seventh place went to Paul W.S. Anderson’s 3D action flick Resident Evil: Afterlife (Sony/Screen Gems) with $4.9 million and $52 million total. Sony reports that it brought in another $24 million overseas this weekend bringing the international total to $151 million and the worldwide gross to over $200 million after just three weeks in theaters. Considering its $60 million production budget, one has to imagine that Anderson and Screen Gems will want to keep the franchise going with a fifth movie.
Lionsgate’s animated film Alpha and Omega (Lionsgate) dropped to eighth place with $4.7 million and $15.1 million total.
Produced by Adam McKay and Will Ferrell, the indie comedy The Virginity Hit (Sony) was given a wide release into 700 theaters where it brought new meaning to the word “BOMB” by making just $300,000 which comes down to roughly $430 per site. Ouch.
Opening on Wednesday, Woody Allen’s latest You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger (Sony Pictures Classics) starring Naomi Watts, Josh Brolin, Anthony Hopkins and Antonio Banderas grossed $163 thousand in six theaters in New York and L.A. It’s hard to compare to previous Allen films since they all open in different numbers of theaters but it’s a better opening than his previous movie Whatever Works, which ended up grossing $5.3 million.
Opening in just four theaters, Davis Guggenheim’s education doc Waiting for “Superman” (Paramount) made $141 thousand, showing the best per-theater average of the weekend with $35k per site.
Rodrigo Cortes’ underground thriller Buried (Lionsgate), starring Ryan Reynolds, had a disappointing opening of just $104 thousand in 11 theaters (average of $9.5k) yet it already has plans to be released nationwide on October 8.
The popular Sundance favorite Catfish (Rogue Pictures) continues to move up the charts, having added 45 theaters on Friday and taking 17th place with $470 thousand and a total of $829 thousand. Word of mouth should be helping the movie to the point where it could be going wide sometime in October.
Click here for the full box office results of the top 12 films.
