This weekend, for the first time ever, four new films opened to double digit grosses in the same weekend in September. The four new films accounted for 77% of the top ten films, but no one is complaining as the four films seemed to offer something to almost everyone.
Just seven months after taking home the Best Director and Best Picture Oscars for No Country For Old Men, the Coen Brothers scored the largest debut and the first number one opening of their careers. Burn After Reading featured mega star power and great advertising which helped it grossed an estimated $19.4M this weekend. The ensemble film averaged an impressive $7,320 from 2,651 sites. The previous best openings for the Coens came from 2003’s Intolerable Cruelty and 2004’s The Ladykillers which bowed to $12.5M and $12.6M, respectively.
Tyler Perry continued his string of hits with a number two opening for The Family That Preys. The filmmaker’s loyal fanbase turned out in droves and helped the film gross an estimated $18M from 2,070 locations for a fantastic average of $8,705.
The first pairing of Robert De Niro and Al Pacino since 1995 did not impress as much as some would have hoped. Righteous Kill only managed a third place finish with an estimated weekend gross of $16.5M. The film actually averaged a solid $5,235 from 3,152 theaters, but didn’t ignite the male fan base the way the studio had hoped. The film’s audience ended up actually skewing slightly more female (51%) than male and poor reviews hurt the film among younger audiences. Still it was the best opening for Pacino since 2002’s Insomnia ($20.9M) (a Christopher Nolan film) and the best for De Niro since 2005’s Hide and Seek ($22M).
The weakest of the four new movies this weekend was The Women starring Meg Ryan and a bunch of other women. It did manage to gross an estimated $10.1M from 2,962 theaters, but that is a fairly tepid average of $3,406 per location. The film really only appealed to and marketed to women, but harsh reviews had most women choosing other films that were, perhaps, better choices for couples. The long term prospects do not look good.
Rounding out the top ten:
- 5. The House Bunny - $4.3M - down 22% - $42.2M cume
- 6. Tropic Thunder - $4.2M - down 42% - $103M cume
- 7. The Dark Knight - $4.0M - down 27% - $517.7M cume
- 8. Bangkok Dangerous - $2.4M - down 69% - $12.5M cume
- 9. Traitor - $2.1M - down 50% - $20.7M cume
- 10. Death Race - $2.0M - down 46% - $33.2M cume
Overall, the top ten films grossed an estimated $83.1M this weekend which was up 39% from last year when The Brave One opened at number one with $13.5M and up 47% from 2006 when Gridiron Gang took the top spot in its first weekend with $14.4M.
Weekend Box Office (September 12-14, 2008)
Next weekend, four more films will try to keep the Fall movie season going strong as Ghost Town, My Best Friend’s Girl, Lakeview Terrace, and Igor all open in wide release and compete for your attention.
Lakeview Terrace just looks awful
Burn After Reading was great, review coming later this morning…interesting about Righteous Kill, I think most guys tend to realize that DeNiro and Pacino are sort of over-the-hill now, plus the bad reviews didn't help at all.
Of course, I wonder if the script had been better or if there had been a better director, if the fans would have come out in droves to see these two guys together again.
How the freaking goodness is House Bunny still in the top ten?! And number 5 at that?! ARG, people!