>Based on Friday and Saturday box office (and estimated Sunday numbers), Contagion is #1 and is headed for a final of about $74 million. The other openers were either quiet or stillborn. The Help, now #2, nonetheless has been upgraded to a domestic final estimate of $174 million. The weekend overall is now looking like it will be up marginally from this weekend last year.
The fifth week decline for The Help (-40%) was a more normal number (although the final estimated gross was increased again), and the other declines for the holdovers were in the normal range for each genre.
September 9-11, 2011 Wknd vs Showbuzz
(millions) Studio Last Domestic
Proj. Wknd Final*
Contagion (WB) $23.1 $ 74
The Help (Dis/DW) $ 8.7 -40% $171+
Warrior (LG) $ 5.6 $ 25
The Debt (Focus) $ 4.9 -51% $ 36
Colombiana (Sony) $ 4.0 -46% $ 41
Rise of Planet of Apes (Fox) $ 3.9 -51% $183
Shark Night 3D (Rel) $ 3.5 -58% $ 16
Apollo 18 (Wein) $ 2.9 -67% $ 15
Our Idiot Brother (Wein) $ 2.8 -49% $ 31
Bucky Larson (Sony) $ 1.5 $ 2
Note: The table above summarizes the weekend as of Sunday. The first column (on which the table is sorted) displays the “studio projection” for each film, based on the Friday and Saturday actual numbers (and a studio-supplied estimate of Sunday). The second column is the percent decline from the prior weekend. The final column is a preliminary estimate of the ShowbuzzDaily Domestic Total Gross for the film’s complete run in North America. A “++” indicates the Domestic number has been upgraded; a “–” indicates a downgrade.
Limited Releases
Opening this weekend on the indie circuit (partial results to come):
— Laugh at My Pain (concert) averaged $20,800 at 96 theaters
— Mere Brother Ki Dulhan (foreign) at 75 theaters
— My Kingdom (foreigh) at 21 theaters
— Love in Space (foreign) at 16 theaters
— Shaolin (foreign) at 9 theaters
— Tanner Hall (drama) at 5 theaters
— The Black Power Mix Tape: 1967-1975 (documentary) at 2 theaters
— The Whale (documentary) at 2 theaters
Total Box Office Volume
The Top 12 Films this weekend are looking like $66 million total, up 1% from the same calendar weekend last year when Resident Evil: Afterlife opened and down 11% from the typical total for this weekend the last four years.
Top 12 Films: Weekend #36
Volume (millions)
2011 $ 66 (-9% vs 2007-10 average; +1% vs 2010)
2007-10
Avg $ 73 Movies Opening That Weekend
2010 $ 66 Resident Evil: Afterlife $27
2009 $ 76 TP’s I Can Do Bad $23, 9 $11, Love Happens $8
2008 $ 86 Burn After Reading $19, Family That Preys $17
Righteous Kill $16, The Women $10
2007 $ 64 The Brave One $14, Mr Woodcock $9, Dragon Wars $5
Next Weekend
Opening next week are I Don’t Know How She Does It from Weinstein, Drive from FilmDistrict, Straw Dogs from Sony, and Lion King (in 3D) from Disney. Those movies will be compared to The Town ($24 million opening weekend), Easy A ($18 million), Devil ($12 million) and Alpha and Omega ($9 million).
In case you missed them, click to see this week’s Weekend Predictions. International numbers will be posted as soon as possible, and Monday we will have official numbers for the Friday-Sunday domestic grosses.
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