The ComingSoon.net Box Office Report has been updated with studio estimates for the weekend. Be sure to check back on Monday for final figures based on actual box office.
The month of April kicked off with three new movies in wide release, but despite heavy marketing campaigns all around, none of them could stop Sony’s blackjack caper flick 21 from remaining on top of the charts for a second weekend with $15.1 million, a 37% drop from its breakout opening weekend. Directed by Robert Luketic (Legally Blonde) and with an ensemble cast including Jim Sturgess, Kate Bosworth, Laurence Fishburne and Kevin Spacey, the film has grossed $46.5 million in just ten days and should continue to do well based on word-of-mouth.
Despite being trumped for the top spot, George Clooney’s third film as a director, the football period comedy Leatherheads (Universal) was just barely able to hold off the Fox Walden family adventure Nim’s Island for second place. Co-starring Renée Zellwegger and John Krasinski from “The Office,” Clooney’s film brought in $13.5 million in business in 2,769 theaters with the second best per-theater average in the Top 12 after 21. The Fox Walden family film starring Jodie Foster, Abigail Breslin and Gerard Butler was predicted to edge ahead over the weekend based on Friday estimates, but instead it fell just short with $13.3 million in over 3,500 theaters. It’s a pretty close race that might become more clear once actual box office is reported on Monday afternoon, but for now, Leatherheads is holding second place.
Despite another substantial drop from last week, Fox’s animated Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who continues to bring in business, adding $9.1 million this weekend to its gross of $131 million, still the highest grossing film of the year so far.
Opening in fifth place, the DreamWorks horror flick The Ruins failed to make much of a mark with just $7.8 million grossed in 2,812 theaters, followed by Dimension Film’s spoof comedy Superhero Movie with $5.4 million in sixth place and a total of $16.9 million.
With the largest drop-off in the Top 10, Tyler Perry’s Meet the Browns (Lionsgate) tumbled to seventh place in its third weekend with $3.5 million, less than $100,000 more than the Owen Wilson comedy Drillbit Taylor (Paramount). Tyler Perry’s latest has grossed just $37.7 million after making $20 million its opening weekend allowing “Drillbit” to catch up with a gross of $25.6 million.
The Top 10 was rounded out with 20th Century Fox’s Shutter with $2.8 million and Roland Emmerich’s 10,000 BC (Warner Bros.) with slightly less.
Opening in 276 theaters in select cities including over 90 IMAX screens, Shine a Light (Paramount Classics), Martin Scorsese’s documentation of a Rolling Stones concert, grossed $1.5 million, averaging $5,474 per venue.
Wong Kar-Wai’s English language debut My Blueberry Nights (Weinstein Co.), starring singer Norah Jones and Jude Law, grossed just $73 thousand in 6 theaters in New York and L.A.
The box office took another drastic tumble, down a whopping 27% from the same weekend last year, which saw four new releases opening over Easter weekend with none of them making a dent in the returning movies.
Click here for the full box office estimates of the top 12 films.
