>Based on Friday and Saturday box office (and estimated Sunday numbers), The Lion King returned to theaters 17 years later — in 3D no less — and scored a solid #1 for the weekend. Drive opened okay, while Straw Dogs and I Don’t Know How She Does It were very quiet arrivals. Conatagion fell to #2, but with a fairly small second-week decline, its final domestic gross has been upgraded. The weekend overall is now looking like it will be down marginally from this weekend last year.
The second week decline for Contagion (-35%) paved the way for an increase in the estimated final domestic gross, and the other declines for the holdovers were in the normal range for each genre (with the exception of The Help which had its usual low decline).
September 16-18, 2011 Wknd vs Showbuzz
(millions) Studio Last Domestic
Proj. Wknd Final*
The Lion King in 3D (Dis) $29.3 $117
Contagion (WB) $14.5 -35% $ 84+
Drive (FilmDis) $11.0 $ 42
The Help (Dis/DW) $ 6.4 -28% $168
Straw Dogs (Sony) $ 5.0 $ 19
I Don’t Know How She Does(Wein) $ 4.5 $ 11
Warrior (LG) $ 2.8 -47% $ 19-
The Debt (Focus) $ 2.9 -38% $ 34
Rise of Planet of Apes (Fox) $ 2.6 -32% $183
Colombiana (Sony) $ 2.3 -42% $ 39
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):
— Restless (Sony Pictures Classics) opened with a weak $3,500 average at 5 theaters
Total Box Office Volume
The Top 12 Films this weekend are looking like $85 million total, down 3% from the same calendar weekend last year when The Town and Easy A opened but up 2% from the typical total for this weekend the last four years.
Top 12 Films: Weekend #37
Volume (millions)
2011 $ 85 (+2% vs 2007-10 average; -3% vs 2010)
2007-10
Avg $ 83 Movies Opening That Weekend
2010 $ 87 The Town $24, Easy A $18, Devil $12
2009 $ 87 Cloudy Chance Meatballs $30, The Informant! $10.5
2008 $ 76 Lakeview Terrace $15, My Best Friend’s Girl $8
2007 $ 80 Resident Evil Extinction $24, Good Luck Chuck $14
Next Weekend
Opening next week are Dolphin Tale from Warner Brothers, Abduction from Lionsgate, Moneyball from Sony, and Killer Elite from Open Road Films. Those movies will be compared to Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps ($19 million opening weekend), Legends of the Guardians ($16 million), and You Again ($8 million).
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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