This weekend proved once again that film audiences enjoy the lowest common denominator, as Jackass 3D destroyed the rest of the box office this weekend, setting a new record for the month of October, while fellow newcomer Red also posted a positive result.
Four years after the last installment of the men behaving badly series, Jackass 3D used the awesome power of 3D (and 3D ticket prices) to jump start the box office with a massive $50M debut, according to estimates. If these estimates hold, the film will be the new king of October opening weekends, dethroning the reigning champ of the last seven years, fellow threequel Scary Movie 3 which opened in October of 2003 with $48.1M. The movie opened with $22M on Friday (setting the single-day October record), fell 23% to $16.9M on Saturday and dropped 34% to $11M on Sunday. Apparently the quick death of 3D has been postponed as audiences filled the theaters and had no problem paying the extra surcharges to watch the demented Johnny Knoxville and company reach deep into their bag of tricks. In one weekend Jackass 3D is near the totals of the past two films, which made $64.3M and $72.8M in 2002 and 2006.
Landing solidly into second place was the elderly spy flick Red which shot up an estimated $22.5M this weekend from 3,255 theaters for a per screen average of $6,912. Reviews for the Summit film, which stars Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman, John Malkovich, and Helen Mirren have been mostly positive.
Continuing its strong run, Sony’s tale of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, The Social Network fell a slim 29% this weekend to $11M, according to estimates, bringing its cume to $63.1M. The film should easily join the century club, and with a slew of awards coming, probably fly higher. Following in fourth was the horse drama from Disney, Secretariat, which had the best hold in the top 10, sliding only 25% to an estimated $9.5M. Its cume is $27.5M and could find its way to a decent, if not spectacular, finish of around $65M.
Warner Brothers took up the next three spots at the box office with three completely different films. Last week’s runner-up, the romantic comedy Life as We Know It dropped 36% from last weekend to $9.2M, according to estimates. Its total now stands at $28.8M on its way to a final cume of around $55M. In sixth place was the kid-friendly owls of Legend of the Guardians which continues to post small declines week to week, falling 38% to an estimated $4.2M. Its cume is $46M. Ben Affleck’s The Town slid 37% into seventh place with an estimated $4M, bringing its total to $80M.
Suffering the worst fall in the top 10 was Universal’s horror entry My Soul to Take which dropped 54% to $3.2M, according to estimates, bringing its cume to a paltry $11.9M. Look for a final total of around $18-20M and quick trip to the rental market. Ninth place belonged to Emma Stone (soon to be seen in the Spider-Man reboot) as her comedy Easy A rounded up $2.6M, according to estimates, a fall of 38% from last weekend. Its cume now stands at $52.3M. And rounding out the top 10 was Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps which fell 49% to an estimated $2.3M in its fourth weekend, bringing its total to $47.8M.
In liimted release, two high profile titles opened to strong and slightly-less strong results. Clint Eastwood’s latest directorial effort Hereafter grossed an estimated $231,000 from only 6 screens for a per screen average of $38,500. Doubling up on screens but taking in half the gross was the Hilary Swank starrer Conviction which made an estimated $110,000 from 11 screens.
By Sujit Chawla of Box Office Guru
