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.
Some might wonder why Johnny Knoxville and his group of long-time pals would put themselves through all sorts of dangerous and crazy stunts and pranks for the sake of Jackass 3D (Paramount), but with the estimated $50 million the third movie brought in this weekend, it’s clear that whatever sort of physical or mental damage those stunts may cause, the “Jackass” crew is laughing all the way to the bank once again. Being the first installment shot fully using 3D cameras, Knoxville’s latest laughfest opened on Friday in 3,081 theaters with an astounding $21.8 million, seeing a daily record for the month of October, before setting a new October opening weekend record, besting the likes of Scary Movie 3 ($48.1 million) and DreamWorks Animation’s Shark Tale ($47.6 million), which have held the month’s benchmarks for six and seven years respectively. Jackass 3D also has the dubious honor of being the highest opening non-fiction movie–we hesitate at calling it a “documentary”–as it opened 72% (!) higher than the previous installment, Jackass: Number Two), which opened with $29 million in September 2006, up 28% from the original movie’s opening in 2002.
With an all-star cast headlined by Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman and Helen Mirren, the action-comedy Red (Summit) came in a strong second with an estimated $22.5 million in 3,255 theaters, making it Summit Entertainment’s second-highest opening non-“Twilight” movie.
David Fincher’s “Facebook movie” The Social Network (Sony) brought in $11 million in its third weekend, dropping to third place, but bringing its total to $63 million.
In their respective second weekends, Disney’s Secretariat starring Diane Lane, pulled ahead of the Katherine Heigl-Josh Duhamel rom-com Life As We Know It (Warner Bros.) with $9.5 million for fourth place to the latter’s $9.2 million. The Warners rom-com is still ahead in gross with $29 million to Secretariat‘s $27.5 million.
Warner Bros. also took sixth and seventh place with Zack Snyder’s Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole (Warner Bros.) earning $4.2 million for a total of $46 million and Ben Affleck’s crime-thriller The Town (Warner Bros.) adding another $4 million having accumulated an impressive $80.6 million since opening in mid-September. (Up until the release of Jackass 3D, it has been the most successful movie of the fall movie season.)
In its second weekend, Wes Craven’s 3D thriller My Soul to Take (Rogue Pictures) dropped 54% to 8th place with $3.2 million and $11.9 million total.
A surprise entry into the Top 12 was the low-key independent release N-Secure, which grossed $1.4 million over the weekend in less than 500 theaters for 11th place. By comparison, Ray Griggs’ “Tea Party Movement” documentary I Want Your Money bombed badly, averaging just $520 per site in 537 theaters and ending up outside the Top 20.
Opening in six theaters in New York, Los Angeles and Toronto, Clint Eastwood’s drama Hereafter (Warner Bros.), starring Matt Damon and Bryce Dallas Howard, grossed $231 thousand, averaging $38.5 thousand per site. It expands nationwide on Friday into roughly 2,500 theaters. The Hilary Swank courtroom drama Conviction (Fox Searchlight), co-starring Sam Rockwell, didn’t fare as well, grossing roughly half that amount in nearly twice as many theaters.
Click here for the full box office results of the top 12 films.
