As predicted, Spike Jonze’s Where the Wild Things Are seemingly dominated the Box Office with $32.4M. It played on a whopping 3,700+ screens, including IMAX screens, for a per-screen average of $8,693. Sounds decent, but figure in the reported budget of $100M, and it looks like it may be a bit of a climb for the movie to be profitable, at least while in theaters.
The ultra-violent thriller Law Abiding Citizen boasted a very respectable $21.25M, and a $7,353 per screen average, which actually shows it performing very close to WTWTA. It played in substantially fewer screens (2,890), and if WTWTA had not had the benefit of IMAX prices, this would have been a much closer race.
The unstoppable juggernaut that is Paranormal Activity continued its trajectory scooping up another $20.1M on only 760 screens! That puts its per screen average at more than $26,000, nearly three times what WTWTA averaged. Pretty impressive. It will expand further next weekend.
Couples Retreat dropped off 47.7%, but still made $17.9M, bringing its total to $63.3M over two weeks.
The very mediocre The Stepfather made $12.3M, which is somewhat impressive considering the competition this weekend. It kind of proves the point that audiences will indeed go see anything remotely resembling horror in October. It’s a real pity that Sam Raimi’s Drag Me To Hell wasn’t held until October. I’m sure it would have managed a lot more than the $15.8M it made on its opening weekend in May. Note to studios: Release horror movies in October, not the summer.
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs is still hanging around, and made an additional $8.1M, for a total of $108M, officially surpassing its budget.
Zombieland continues to perform steadily, and managed $7.8M, for a cumulative of $60.8.
Toy Story 1&2, Surrogates and The Invention of Lying rounded out the top ten.
Surrogates looks to be one of the biggest losers so far this fall. Despite costing over $80M, it has yet to break $40M in its four week run.
What did you see this weekend, and how did you like it? Early estimates are from Box Office Mojo.
