Ben Affleck’s The Town will be taking the weekend #1 spot after an $8.3 million Friday and what should be a $24 million weekend. Surprising, perhaps to me only, this will already top Affleck’s excellent 2007 feature Gone Baby Gone, which only made $20 million overall. The Town was made on a budget of $34 million, which means this one will likely walk away from theaters with a profit making DVD and Blu-ray sales gravy. However, I wonder what word of mouth will be on this flick. I didn’t mind it (my review), but I didn’t think it brought anything new to the picture other than a pretty good car chase scene. Any of you see it and care to share your thoughts?
In second is Columbia’s Easy A serving as Emma Stone’s coming out party. The film managed $6.8 million on Friday and will likely finish close to $20 million for the weekend. Considering we’re talking about a film reportedly made on a $8 million budget that number is looking pretty sweet. Will Stone be able to transition into a new Hollywood “go to” actress? I never had a chance to see Easy A so I can’t speak to its quality, but I did recently watch The House Bunny for a second time and Stone is quality in that flick.
In third is the M Night Shyamalan written and produced thriller Devil directed by the Dowdle brothers and carrying with it the hatred of the online masses simply due to Shyamalan’s involvement. I didn’t get to see this one either, but it didn’t look all that bad and a few people were willing to give it a shot as it took in $4.9 million on Friday and will likely finish somewhere around $14 million for the weekend. Made on a $10 million production budget this one will likely break even at the box-office if it has any kind of legs whatsoever. Next in the “Night Chronicles” series is Reincarnate directed by Daniel Stamm, which centers on a jury haunted by supernatural forces that hold the key to the case of an accused murderer. Hmmmm… that sounds a bit… dumb, but then again running into the devil in a business elevator doesn’t sound too high concept either.
The week’s last new release is Lionsgate’s animated Alpha and Omega which managed $2.6 million at the box-office and will struggle to land $8-9 million for the weekend, and that is assuming it’s able to do a bit better with families over Saturday and Sunday. I’m actually heading out in about an hour to see Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole, which will likely dwarf Alpha and Omega‘s number next weekend.
I’ve added the complete Friday top ten directly below and it looks like Inception may be able to make it ten straight weeks in the top ten before it is surely out of the top ten next week. I will be filling in for Laremy tomorrow morning with the complete weekend wrap-up.
- The Town – $8.3 million
- Easy A – $6.8 million
- Devil – $4.9 million
- Resident Evil: Afterlife 3D – $3 million
- Alpha and Omega – $2.6 million
- Takers – $930,000
- The American – $835,000
- The Other Guys – $585,000
- Eat Pray Love – $520,000
- Inception – $500,000
