Spike Jonze and David Eggers’ adaptation of Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are easily topped the weekend box office with an estimated total of $32.5 million. Another new entry, the revenge drama Law Abiding Citizen starring Gerard Butler and Jamie Foxx, finished in second place with $21.3 million, while
Weekend Box Office (Studio Estimates): October 16-18, 2009
|
Rank |
Film |
Weekend Gross |
Screens |
Avg./Screen |
|
1 |
Where the Wild Things Are |
$32,470,000 |
3,735 |
$8,693 |
|
2 |
Law Abiding Citizen |
$21,250,000 |
2,890 |
$7,353 |
|
3 |
Paranormal Activity |
$20,163,000 |
760 |
$26,530 |
|
4 |
Couples Retreat |
$17,949,000 |
3,009 |
$5,965 |
|
5 |
The Stepfather (2009) |
$12,300,000 |
2,734 |
$4,499 |
|
6 |
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs |
$8,100,000 |
3,037 |
$2,667 |
|
7 |
Zombieland |
$7,800,000 |
3,171 |
$2,460 |
|
8 |
Toy Story / Toy Story 2 (3D) |
$3,011,000 |
1,489 |
$2,022 |
|
9 |
Surrogates |
$1,922,000 |
2,326 |
$826 |
|
10 |
The Invention of Lying |
$1,905,000 |
1,624 |
$1,173 |
Where the Wild Things Are’s performance was especially impressive because it faced competition for its young demographic from Sony’s Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs, which passed the $100 million mark in its fifth weekend of release, and Disney’s Toy Story 3-D Double Feature. Because of Wild Things $80 million cost Warner Bros. will be watching the film's second weekend performance with fingers crossed. Audiences gave the film a positive “B+” CinemaScore, which indicates the film may generate the kind of word-of-mouth to maintain a strong box office performance in the face of competition from Astro Boy, which opens next Friday.
Overture is hoping that Law Abiding Citizen will demonstrate the same kind of staying power that made another revenge flick, Taken, such a success during the first quarter of 2009. But all the films opening next weekend had better watch out for Paranormal Activity, which will expand to even more theaters, when it goes head-to-head with the latest release in the Saw franchise. Paranormal managed a blistering $26,530 per theater average, and has already earned nearly $34 million. Not a bad return on its $11,000 cost.
Universal’s comedy Couples Retreat dipped 48% in its second weekend. It has already earned $63.3 million and has a good chance to surpass $100 million. Zombieland, which has brought in $60 million in three weekends, has an outside chance to top $100 million as well.
Disney’s Surrogates, which is based on the comic book/graphic novel series from Top Shelf, remained in the top ten during its fourth weekend. It added $1.9 million to its total, which has now reached $36.3 million. While it won’t make its $80 million cost back at the box office, it has demonstrated enough power that it may end up doing pretty well on DVD.