Based on Friday and Saturday box office (and estimated Sunday numbers), The Help continues at #1, down an impressive 29% from last weekend. All the openers are very weak, with per theater numbers well below average. However, the theater counts come with a big asterisk. The counts are accurate for Friday, but the Saturday counts are 10-20% lower as many theater chains closed their doors in the areas impacted by Hurricane Irene. Of course, Irene was a bit of a bust in terms of damage, but the precautionary closings will have some impact on the grosses. Of course, The Help managed to do just fine, so the bad performance of the openers might have more to do with low movie quality than the quasi-fury of Mother Nature. The weekend overall is now looking like it will be down 23% from this weekend last year, and the full week (Monday-Sunday) is down 19% from the same week last year.
August 26-28, 2011 Wknd vs Showbuzz
(millions) Studio Last Domestic
Proj. Wknd Final*
The Help (Dis/DW) $14.3 -29% $142
Colombiana (Sony) $10.3 $ 28
Don't Be Afraid Dark (FilmDis) $ 8.7 $ 23
Rise of Planet of Apes (Fox) $ 8.6 -46% $176
Our Idiot Brother (Wein) $ 6.6 $ 24
Spy Kids 4 (Wein) $ 5.7 -51% $ 32
The Smurfs (Sony) $ 4.8 -38% $140
Fright Night (Dis) $ 3.0 -63% $ 20
Conan the Barbarian (LG) $ 3.1 -69% $ 20
Final Destination 5 (WB) $ 2.4 -68% $ 44
Note: The table above summarizes the weekend as of Sunday. The first column (on which the table is sorted) displays the "studio projection" for each film, based on the Friday and Saturday actual numbers (and a studio-supplied estimate of Sunday). The second column is the percent decline from the prior weekend. The final column is a preliminary estimate of the ShowbuzzDaily Domestic Total Gross for the film's complete run in North America. A "++" indicates the Domestic number has been upgraded; a "--" indicates a downgrade.
Limited Releases
Opening this weekend on the indie circuit (partial results):
-- Higher Ground (drama) should average $7,630 at 3 theaters
-- Brighton Rock (period drama) should average $3,135 at 11 theaters
-- Redemption Road (drama) should average a woeful $791 at 26 theaters
-- Suing the Devil (comedy/drama) at 14 theaters
-- Chasing Madoff (documentary) at 9 theaters
-- Circumstance (drama) at 7 theaters
-- Buzzkill (comedy) at 1 theater
Total Box Office Volume
The Top 12 Films this weekend are looking like $73 million total, down 23% from the same calendar weekend last year when Takers, The Last Exorcism and Avatar: Special Edition opened.
Top 12 Films: Weekend #34
Volume (millions)
2011 $ 73 (-22% vs 2007-10 average; -23% vs 2010)
2007-10
Avg $ 94
Movies Opening That Weekend
2010 $ 95 Takers $20, Last Exorcism $20, Avatar: Special $4
2009 $110 Final Destination $27, Halloween 2 $16
2008 $ 74 Babylon AD $9, Traitor $8, Disaster Movie $6
2007 $ 97 Halloween $26, Balls of Fury $11, Death Sentence $4
Next Weekend
Opening next week are Apollo 18 from Weinstein, Shark Night 3D from Relativity, and The Debt from Focus (on Wednesday). Those movies will be compared to The American ($13 million opening weekend), Machete ($11 million) and Going the Distance ($7 million).
To see the original Weekend Predictions click here. International numbers will be posted as soon as possible, and Monday we will have official numbers for the Friday-Sunday domestic grosses.
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