I figured since I post about what is coming out in theaters every Friday I might as well start posting how the box office did from that particular weekend. I’ll try and mostly talk about the new releases and how they fared, if the movie has been out long I’ll just leave it be. Unless it is pulling a Titanic style marathon devouring the competition, then I may make mention of it.
Box Office Break Down:
Weekend of September 9th–11th, 2011
A virus in the Steven Soderbergh’s ensemble ‘Contagion’ knocked ‘The Help’ off of their top spot from the last three weeks. Estimated to gross between $20-25 million at the box office this weekend, ‘Contagion’ did just that with $23.1 million.
Speaking of ‘The Help’, it went from # 1 to #2 for the week with just $8.7 million, don’t feel too bad for ‘Help’, it’s bringing its domestic total to $137.1 million. Great sleeper style hit, bugeted at only $25 million dollar, ‘The Help’ has become not only a summer sensation but a sure hit with audiences.
‘Warrior’, another new opening for the week, set in the world of MMA fighting, had an extremely weak start with only 5.6 million at the box office. But ‘Warrior’ shouldn’t feel too bad, it didn’t do nearly as bad as the other big opening from the weekend, ‘Bucky Larson: Born to be a Star’ by the Happy Madison guys which came in well out of the top TWELVE with a paltry $1.5 million for the weekend. Averaging about $967 dollars per location, that pocket change in comparison to what ‘Contagion’ brought in with an estimated $7,180 per location.
There was an independent movie that came out this week with very little promotion in about 1,500 location called ‘Creature’, I didn’t even hear about it and it broke a record this weekend. It just wasn’t a record that I’m sure the producers wanted it to break, it made $263,941, an average of $220 dollars per location. It is considered the worst opening for a movie in over 1,000 locations. It was produced by Sid Sheinberg, the man who was president of Universal Studios during the releases of ‘Jaws’, ‘E.T.’ and ‘Jurassic Park’. Kind of humbling if you think about it.
The rest of the Box Office gross is as follows (from IMDB.com):
| Rank | Title | Weekend | Gross | Weeks | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  |
Contagion (2011) | $23.1M | $23.1M | 1 |
| 2 |  |
The Help (2011) | $8.69M | $137M | 5 |
| 3 |  |
Warrior (2011) | $5.61M | $5.61M | 1 |
| 4 |  |
The Debt (2010) | $4.9M | $22M | 2 |
| 5 |  |
Colombiana (2011) | $4M | $29.8M | 3 |
| 6 |  |
Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011) | $3.88M | $168M | 6 |
| 7 |  |
Shark Night 3D (2011) | $3.53M | $14.8M | 2 |
| 8 |  |
Apollo 18 (2011) | $2.91M | $15M | 2 |
| 9 |  |
Our Idiot Brother (2011) | $2.76M | $21.4M | 3 |
| 10 |  |
Spy Kids: All the Time in the World in 4D (2011) | $2.51M | $34.2M | 4 |