Source:Box Office Mojo, Edward Douglas

September 21, 2008

The ComingSoon.net Box Office Report has been updated with studio estimates for the weekend. Click here for the full box office estimates of the top 12 films and then check back on Monday for the final figures based on actual box office.

After a weekend with three new movies grossing $15 million, this weekend saw only one and that was Lakeview Terrace, the new thriller from Screen Gems starring Samuel L. Jackson and directed by Neil LaBute, which took in $15.6 million in less than 2,500 theaters, averaging $6.3k per site. It is Jackson's 13th #1 movie as a headlining star since his breakout in Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction almost 14 years ago.

It also knocked Joel & Ethan Coen's dark comedy Burn After Reading (Focus Features) down to the #2 spot, as it saw a moderate 41% drop with $11.3 million in its second weekend bringing its total gross to $36.4 million.

In the meantime, Kate Hudson's first starring role in an R-rated movie with the romantic comedy My Best Friend's Girl (Lionsgate), co-starring Dane Cook and Jason Biggs, took in a disappointing $8.3 million, opening in the most theaters for the new wide releases but averaging the least. It was followed closely in fourth place by MGM computer animated family film Igor, featuring the voice of John Cusack, which took in $8 million in 2,339 theaters.

Two of last week's top movies took major tumbles as both the Robert De Niro-Al Pacino crime-thriller Righteous Kill (Overture) and Tyler Perry's The Family That Preys (Lionsgate) lost over 50% of their opening business, flopping places as Righteous Kill took fifth place with $7.7 million and Perry's movie brought in $7.5 million in sixth place. Both movies have grossed just over $28 million.

The fourth movie from last week, Diane English's chick flick The Women, dropped to 7th place with $5.3 million, down 48% from its opening weekend with a gross of $19.2 million.

With the best reviews for the weekend, David Koepp's comedy Ghost Town (DreamWorks), starring Ricky Gervais and Téa Leoni, opened with $5.2 million in 1,505 theaters for 8th place.

The Top 10 was rounded out by Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight (Warner Bros.) with $2.9 million, and the Anna Faris comedy The House Bunny (Sony) with slightly less. The year's biggest movie (that's Dark Knight) has grossed $522 million after ten weeks in the Top 10, though it will probably be losing many of its IMAX venues on Friday when DreamWorks' Eagle Eye opens.

Two movies slated to open wide in October received platform releases in New York, L.A. and other cities with Ed Harrris' Western Appaloosa (Warner Bros.) bringing in $258 thousand in 14 theaters while the period drama The Duchess(Paramount Vantage), starring Keira Knightley, grossing $203 thousand in half as many theaters.

The Top 10 grossed $74.5 million, which is just slightly less than the Top 10 grossed in the same period last year.

Click here for the full box office estimates of the top 12 films.