The North American box office slumped to its second lowest point of the year thanks to the lack of a breakout new hit plus a devastating hurricane wiping out plenty of business on the east coast. With tens of millions of people forced to stay home and many theaters shutting down for a day or two, moviegoing took a major hit across a large part of the country. But with films trying to pick up Saturday’s lost business on Sunday, and the weather event hitting at a time when the marketplace is generally weak anyway, the overall impact was not incredibly severe.
Topping the chart for a second straight weekend was the sleeper hit The Help which slipped only 28% to an estimated $14.3M. After 19 days of release, the Disney release has collected a sturdy $96.6M and will break through the $100M mark this week. The Viola Davis starrer averaged $5,159 which was impressive for the third weekend of a non-tentpole film.
The weak marketplace saw consumers spend just over $85M on the Top 20 films. Only the Super Bowl frame in early February was worse this year with $82M. Box office prospects over the next couple of weeks also look grim with few films hitting theaters that are truly exciting ticket buyers.
The revenge thriller Colombiana led the new releases with an opening weekend score of $10.3M, according to estimates. The Sony release about an assassin hunting down her parents’ killers averaged $3,940 from 2,614 locations which was respectable for a late summer film with a hurricane eating into east coast business. Starring Zoe Saldana and produced by Luc Besson, Columbiana did not fare too well with critics, but did connect moderately well with adult women. Studio research showed that 57% of the audience for the PG-13 pic was female and 65% was 25 or older.
The horror film Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark attracted a soft debut in third with an estimated $8.7M. Averaging a lackluster $3,148 per site from 2,760 theaters, the R-rated remake suffered from stiff competition being the third fright film in as many weeks to hit the multiplexes. FilmDistrict marketed the thriller as being from producer Guillermo del Toro who has a fan following of his own, but overall interest was not too strong.
Fox’s sci-fi prequel Rise of the Planet of the Apes ranked fourth with an estimated $8.7M as well, down 46% in its fourth frame. The action hit now stands at $148.5M on its way to $170M+.
The Paul Rudd comedy Our Idiot Brother debuted poorly in fifth place with an estimated $6.6M from 2,555 locations for a wimpy $2,578 average. The summer’s latest R-rated comedy earned decent reviews for The Weinstein Co. (which acquired the hot pic at this year’s Sundace Film Festival) but lacked the must-see buzz that so many other raunchy comedies earlier this summer had. Often times films work at more specialized events like Sundance or Comic Con, but fail to make much of a mark during a commercial release across 50 states.
A pair of 3D kidpics followed. In its second weekend, Spy Kids: All the Time in the World fell 51% to an estimated $5.7M for The Weinstein Co. With $21.7M in ten days, the PG-rated fourquel should finish with around $35M making it the lowest-grossing installment by far. Faring much better with families, The Smurfs slipped only 39% to an estimated $4.8M giving Sony a hefty $126M to date. The Smurfette pic has been the dominant choice for kids in the second half of summer.
The 3D remake Conan the Barbarian collapsed by 69% in its second weekend to an estimated $3.1M for a weak $16.6M sum in ten days. The big-budget actioner looks to end its weak run with only $20-23M. Fellow sophomore 80s redo Fright Night also fell sharply tumbling 61% to an estimated $3M for a dull $14.2M total. Look for the 3D Disney release to finish up with only $20M. Rounding out the top ten was the hit divorce comedy Crazy, Stupid, Love with an estimated $2.9M, off 39%, for a $69.5M cume. The Warner Bros. film may reach $80M.
The top ten films grossed an estimated $68.1M which was down 22% from last year when Takers opened with $20.5M; and down 35% from 2009 when The Final Destination debuted on top with $27.4M.
Written by Gitesh Pandya, Box Office Guru!
