The box office results for the weekend of October 21st – 23rd brings in a lot of rewrite Activity to the record books. Meanwhile, a couple of foreign treasures fail to make bank in America. Here are the weekend actuals:
1. Paranormal Activity 3 ($52.56 million)
2. Real Steel ($10.82 million)
3. Footloose 2011 ($10.35 million)
4. The Three Musketeers 2011 ($8.67 million)
5. The Ides of March ($4.85 million)
6. Dolphin Tale ($4.21 million)
7. Moneyball ($3.98 million)
8. Johnny English Reborn ($3.83 million)
9. The Thing 2011 ($3.06 million)
10. 50/50 ($2.83 million)
Analysis
Rarely will a sequel out-do the original in content and/or box office performance. But trilogies are a whole different game, since they play by their own set of rules (according to “Randy” from Scream). Paranormal Activity 3 not only out performed its franchise brethren on opening weekend…it also raised the bar for the entire horror genre. With its opening take, PA3 not only set the record for debut weekends in the genre but also took the Fall movie season opening crown from Jackass 3-D ($50 million). At this rate, the third installment – that only rang up a $5 million production bill – should be able to eclipse the $107 million the first one took in just a couple of years ago. Reviews from the lovely critics and moviegoers are at their pinnacle for the franchise. And the only real negative aspect about the potential profits Paramount could rake in from this installment is that the franchise is historically very front-loaded and experiences a steep drop from week-to-week.
Now although our foreign arrivals did not fair too well domestically, things aren’t that bad in the big picture. Johnny English Reborn is a domestic dud, yet the flick has already secured over $100 million worldwide off a $45 million production budget. The American totals can be viewed as just icing (crappy generic brand) on the cake for Universal. The Three Musketeers – version 4.0 or 5.0 – on the other hand, were hoping for some U.S. support. Worldwide the $90 million summer-like action/adventure flick is up to just $73 million (including this weekend’s domestic). Without any support stateside, let’s just say that Summit Entertainment will be banking on next month’s Twilight release makes up the difference this critically panned piece failed to secure. Or at least that’s what co-star Milla Jovovich’s Twitter theory is.
Dolphin Tale and Moneyball currently hold the longest streak in the top ten with 5 weeks apiece. Both are exceeding their respective production budgets and will all be seeing black ink on the balance sheets.
Flop Alert: The Mighty Macs. This underdog depiction of college basketball head-coach, Cathy Rush, is going nowhere. Although it only opened in under 1000 theaters, the over-crowding of faith-based/inspiration dramas this last month will leave this in the back-court (see what I did there).
Sleeper Hit: Real Steel. Hanging around the top two spots for its third straight week, and getting a nice assist from overseas’ totals, this $110 million blockbuster-like product is now up to $153 million worldwide. If this can get within striking distance of $200 million, the On-Demand and DVD run could put this guy over when it’s all said and done.
This Friday brings in another full slate of genres, but strangely, no horror on what is considered Halloween weekend. Puss in Boots will try to capture the fam-friendly audiences and will most likely benefit from being a spin-off of the Shrek franchise. In Time will go Sci-Fi while The Rum Diary will go drunken-comedy with box office icon Johnny Depp. And for those looking for a period-piece, Anonymous will show up in limited fashion depicting the conspiracy surrounding the great William Shakespeare. Reviews will be right here my fellow Shockers.
Report by Joe Belcastro
