The Social Network is the big movie on campus. For the second week in a row the Facebook movie held the number one spot at the box office. The film edged out three new entries from the week, though not by a landslide. Life As We Know It was the runner up with $14.6 million. Katherine Heigl has done better in the past even with Killers, her most recent critical abomination with 12% on Rotten Tomatoes
Still, My Soul To Take had even worse reception with an 8%. The movie opened at fifth place with $6.9 million. It managed to best the opening weekends for both Case 39 and Let Me In last week. Secretariat, this year’s Seabiscuit, placed third in the race with $12.6 million. Release windows certainly matter. Seabiscuit earned $20.8 million on fewer screens with a July weekend, though admittedly the landscape for such films has changed in that time.
Let Me In already dropped off the charts to eleventh place while Case 39 clings to ninth. The last hanger on is You Again which was able to make back its production budget this week with its total haul crossing $20.7 million. The rest of the lineup held no surprises.
The Top Ten
Hollywood offers some counterprogramming from the recent C-horror and dramatic entries with two fun films. Out at 3,000 locations is Red, an over-the-top action picture starring Bruce Willis, Helen Mirren, John Malkovich, and Morgan Freeman, which has the look and appeal of Wanted. Once again, release windows will play a role in success. Wanted debuted in June with $50 million. October films don’t typically earn this type of attention.
Jackass 3-D is the newest in the silly franchise. The previous entries Jackass: The Movie and Jackass: Number Two were actually pretty successful. Both of the cheap reality flicks opened with more than $20 million and finished with greater than $60 million domestic. This 3-D sequel will occupy 2,500 theaters this Friday.
