Weekend Box Office: Michael Jackson Was King

The real story from the box office this weekend is the non-story of This Is It. Sure, it won the weekend with $21.3 million, but there were some crazy estimates thrown around last week. I know I wasn’t the only person entertaining the notion that this movie would open above $70 million, especially after seeing all the hysterics from frenzied fans on opening day and sold out venues.

So, I have been scratching my head trying to figure out why the movie was a relative dud here in the U.S. Worldwide, it was a smashing success and made over $100 million. Although, I heard more than one estimate say that it could open in the $200-250 million range, and it made less than half that.

Do you think that because Michael Jackson lived here in the States, and we were exposed to more of the controversial aspects of his life? Perhaps fans in Japan, Germany and Australia had a more pristine memory of the King of Pop. At any rate, I was pretty blown away by the movie’s fairly low numbers. This was supposed to be one of the biggest events of the year.

Paranormal Activity enjoyed Halloween weekend, and took in another $16.5 million. It only dropped 22% from last weekend. It stands at a cumulative total of $84.8 million and is all but guaranteed to pass $100 million during its domestic run.

The same cannot be said for Saw VI and a free-falling Where the Wild Things Are. Both dropped over 60%, meaning they won’t be around much longer. At this rate, WTWTA will struggle to recoup its $100 million budget. On an interesting note, Amelia was actually able to break into the top ten in its second week of release, and only dropped 23%.

Here are the totals, according to Variety.

1. This Is It $21.3M
2. Paranormal Activity $16.5M
3. Law Abiding Citizen $7.3M
4. Couples Retreat $6M
5. Saw VI $5.5M
6. Where the Wild Things Are $5M
7. The Stepfather $3.4M
8. Astro Boy $3M
9. Amelia $3M
10. Cirque Du Freak $2.8M

Next week, four new releases will be fighting for our dollars with Disney’s 3-D A Christmas Carol, The Fourth Kind, The Men Who Stare at Goats, and The Box all going wide.