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.
The holiday movie season started a weekend earlier than usual as DreamWorks Animation moved their “Shrek” spin-off Puss In Boots forward to late October from its original early November release date, joined by a debilitating snowstorm in the Northeast that kept many people away from the theaters on Saturday. Featuring the voices of Antonio Banderas, Salma Hayek, Billy Bob Thornton and Zach Galifianakis, the computer-animated movie grossed an estimated $34 million in its opening weekend, the weakest showing for the company since 2006’s Flushed Away. Part of that weak opening can be attributed to the snowstorm, although it also faced Game 7 of the World Series on Friday night and Halloween parties on both nights, which also may have limited the movie’s audience. The movie grossed $3.2 million of that amount in its 294 domestic IMAX screens.
After setting an October opening record, Paramount Pictures’ Paranormal Activity 3 dropped to second place with $18.5 million, a whopping 65% loss of business from its opening weekend. It has grossed $81.3 million in its first ten days which means it’s likely to pass the gross of its predecessor sometime this coming week.
Justin Timberlake and Amanda Seyfried were paired for Andrew (Gattaca) Niccol’s sci-fi thriller In Time (20th Century Fox), which opened in third place with just $12 million, also weaker than expected.
Taking 4th place was Craig Brewer’s remake of Footloose (Paramount) with $5.4 million, down 48% from last week with a three week total of $38.4 million.
Johnny Depp starred in the Hunter S. Thompson adaptation The Rum Diary (FilmDistrict) with Aaron Eckhart and Amanda Heard, but the movie failed to connect with audiences, taking fifth place with just $5 million in 2,272 theaters.
Shawn Levy’s Real Steel (DreamWorks), starring Hugh Jackman, faced its biggest drop since opening earlier in October, dropping from second to sixth place with $4.7 million and ending its first month in theaters with $73.9 million.
It was followed in seventh place by Paul W.S. Anderson’s The Three Musketeers (Summit Entertainment) with $3.5 million, also taking a significant loss of 60% from its opening weekend.
George Clooney’s political thriller The Ides of March (Sony) took eighth place with $2.7 million and $33.5 million total, while the baseball drama Moneyball, starring Brad Pitt, took ninth place with $2.4 million and $67.4 million total.
The Top 10 grossed roughly $90 million, up slightly from the same weekend last year when Saw 3D opened at #1 with just $24.2 million.
Steven Spielberg’s The Adventures of Tintin opened internationally nearly two months before its US release and grossed $55.8 million in 19 countries including France, which set a new box office record for a Hollywood-produced non-sequel.
Roland Emmerich’s Shakespeare exposé Anonymous (Sony) opened in 265 theaters in select cities where it brought in $1 million, roughly $3.8 thousand per venue. Its A- CinemaScore means it connected with the mostly over-30 audiences and there’s a good chance it will expand further.
Also in limited release, Drake Doremus’ Like Crazy (Paramount Vantage) opened in four theaters in New York and Los Angeles where it brought in $120 thousand in its opening weekend.
Click here for the full box office results of the top 12 films.
