On Saturday morning, it looked like Megamind was going head to head with Due Date. Both films made around $12M on Friday evening, but Megamind built on its momentum and added another $20 M to its total on Saturday, bringing its full weekend total to $47.7M. This came from a mixture of 2D and 3D venues.
That is still a bit lower than Despicable Me ($56.4M) made on its opening weekend, though. Incidentally, Paramount has had a number one movie three of the last four weekends (Paranormal Activity 2, Jackass 3D and now Megamind.)
That is not to say that Due Date didn’t have a great weekend. It’s total of $33.5 M was good enough to break the November record for best opening for an R-rated comedy. The Robert Downey Jr./Zach Galifianakis comedy didn’t so fare so well when it came to critics, but audiences seemed to enjoy the movie.
Tyler Perry continues to be box office gold for Lionsgate. His latest movie For Colored Girls was not widely screened for critics, but it managed an impressive $20.1 M anyway. This is the first time Perry has released a R-rated film. The weekend total is a bit lower than what his films typically earn, but it is a good, solid number.
According to Lionsgate sources, the audience was over 80% African American females, no surprise since the strong ensemble cast consisted of African American female actresses.
Summit’s Red continues to hold strong in its fourth week in release. It made another $8M, placing in fourth. The film has made $71.8 to date.
Saw 3D predictably took a tumble after its core audience came out in support of the film over its opening weekend. It dropped over 66%, a large margin, even when it comes to horror films. It made $8.2M, for a two week total of $38M. Paranormal Activity 2 was close on its heels with $7.2M in its third weekend.
Notable news outside of the top five:
- Hereafter has yet to hit the $30M mark after four weeks.
- Secretariat surpassed $50M over the weekend.
- In limited release, the Sean Penn/Naomi Watts political thriller Fair Game enjoyed over $15,000 per screen average.
- Danny Boyle’s 127 Hours only opened on 4 screens, but it made an astonishing $66,000 per screen, signaling some major anticipation from audiences.
- This was the best weekend for the box office for this time frame since 2003.
[Via Box Office Mojo and The Hollywood Reporter]
