Monday Update
As many expected The Butler did overtake One Direction and end up winning the 4-day Labor Day weekend and it wasn't even particularly close, with The Butler earning a total of $20 million compared with just $18 million for One Direction: This Is Us.
Original Article (Sunday)
The front-loaded concert film One Direction: This Is Us topped the weekend box office with an estimated 3-day total of $17 million, but Lee Daniels’ The Butler, which has ruled the charts the two previous weekends is closing fast and may overtake the British boy band concert film on Monday for the four-day weekend crown. Whatever the outcome, it has been a slow Labor Day weekend at the cineplexes with the total of the top 12 films down 15.2% from last year. The major surprise this week was the strong debut of the Spanish language film Instructions Not Included.
Directed by documentary Morgan Spurlock (Super Size Me), One Direction: This Is Us at least showed that there is some life left in the concert film genre after the 2012 disaster of Katy Perry’s concert film Part of Me, which debuted with just $7.2 million. However One Direction’s $17 million take is way behind Miley Cyrus’ Hannah Montana: Best of Both Worlds, which bowed with $31 million in 2008 and Justin Bieber’s Never Say Never, which opened to $29.5 million in February of 2011.
The One Direction film dropped a mammoth 54% from Friday to Saturday as the group’s young (65% under 17) female (women made up a ridiculous 87% of the audience) crowd rushed to see their favorite band on opening night. They loved the film too, giving it an excellent "A" CinemaScore, though the film’s limited demographic appeal will mean that like most concert movies, One Direction: This Is Us will have a limited stay in theaters.
2
Lee Daniels' The Butler
$14,742,000
3,330
$4,427
$74,007,000
3
3
We're the Millers
$12,610,000
3,445
$3,660
$109,565,000
4
4
Planes
$7,756,000
3,259
$2,380
$70,844,000
4
5
Instructions Not Included
$7,500,000
347
$21,614
$7,500,000
1
6
Elysium
$6,300,000
2,539
$2,481
$78,404,000
4
7
The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones
$5,200,000
3,118
$1,668
$22,654,000
2
8
The World's End
$4,759,000
1,553
$3,064
$16,568,000
2
9
Getaway
$4,505,000
2,130
$2,115
$4,505,000
1
10
Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters
$4,425,000
2,393
$1,849
$54,965,000
4
Meanwhile The Butler earned a 3-day total of $14.7 million thanks to a miniscule drop of just 10.7%. The socially conscious Civil Rights drama has an outside chance to surpass One Direction on Monday and become the first film of 2013 to top the box office in three consecutive frames.
Third place went to the raunchy, dope-smuggling comedy We’re The Millers, which slipped just 3.6% as it earned an estimated $12.6 million 3-day total which brought its 4 weekend total to $109.6 million.
Disney’s Planes also continues to perform well as it dropped just 9.6% and brought its domestic total to $71 million. This film, which was produced by Disney’s Direct-to-DVD unit, has a chance to pass the $100 million mark with no real family movie competition until Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2 opens later this month.
But the big surprise of the weekend was Instructions Not Included, which posted the best opening ever for a Spanish language film in the U.S. Written and directed by Eugenio Derbez, who also stars, the success of Instructions is a powerful testament to the growing importance of the Hispanic audience in U.S. theaters. Derbez is a huge star in Mexico. He has appeared in American films like Adam Sandler’s Jack & Jill and on Rob Schneider’s ill-fated sitcom Rob, but he is extremely well known here thanks to Spanish language TV networks.
Neil Blomkamp’s science fiction film Elysium dropped only 9% as it moved up from 7th place last weekend to sixth. The socially conscious sci-fi action movie starring Matt Damon earned $6.3 million and brought its total to $78 million. While it still trails Blomkamp’s District 9, Elysium too has a chance to make it to the $100 million mark domestically.
Edgar Wright’s The World’s End posted the biggest drop (46%) in the top ten as it fell from number 4 last week to number 8 while earning $4.8 million and bringing its domestic total to $16.6 million. With all the makings of a cult hit, The World’s End could end up doing very well on video.
The third of this week’s four new releases, Warner Bros.’ crime drama Getaway bombed with a debut of just $4.5 million, while the political thriller Closed Circuit, which opened in just 870 theaters debuted at #15, just ahead of 2 Guns, which earned $2.6 million and looks to finish its domestic run around the $75 million mark.
It should be noted that the oft-maligned Pacific Rim managed to pass the $100 million mark domestically this weekend. Guillermo Del Toro’s kaiju/anime mash-up has earned $75.3% of its worldwide total of $404.5 million overseas--and while the $190 million movie still has a considerable way to go to make it to the black, it is hardly a bomb on the scale of R.I.P.D. or Battleship.
Check back here next week to see if Vin Diesel in Riddick can get the box office back on track.
