Weekend Box Office (Oct 16th-18th)

If this report turns out to hold true for the weekend, I wish I kept Where The Wild Things Are on a slate or two. From Deadline.com:

First Box Office: 'Where The Wild Things Are' Overperforming For $12+M Friday & Probable $35+M Weekend

Where the Wild Things Are (#1): Friday grosses are looking to come in past $12M from 3,735 locations, including 145 Imax theaters. And now what even rival studios thought was at best a $30M weekend is "off and running" to go past $35M. That's still a conservative estimate because Warner Bros thinks today's revenues are unusually boosted by the "Spikers" as well as by adults attracted by the older-focused marketing campaign. Execs think that will translate into Saturday grosses only 20% higher, not the usual 60% higher of most matinee-driven kiddie films.

Universal's holdover comedy Couples Retreat should come in #2 for the weekend with $20M from 3,009 plays. Paramount's Paranormal Activity should hit #3 with high teens as it goes into wider release on 760 screens. At #4, Overture's Law Abiding Citizen starring Jamie Foxx and Gerard Butler could open to mid-teens from 2,889 venues. And Sony's low-budget reboot Stepfather on 2,734 dates might debut to $12M and #5.

PS - Since Paranormal Activity isn't part of any leagues, I guess that means that Law Abiding Citizen will get 3 point for the weekend, right?

Yes, LAC would get 3 T5 this weekend.

No I think Paranormal Activity will beat Law Abiding Citizen, even for the full 3-day weekend. Good for Where the Wild Things Are.

Wow, that's a lot more for The Stepfather than I expected.

J.I. wrote:No I think Paranormal Activity will beat Law Abiding Citizen, even for the full 3-day weekend. Good for Where the Wild Things Are.

I was saying that LAC would get 3 T5 because PA doesn't count in the leagues...

DHD Update:

+Where the Wild Things Are is now listed as 38M+
+Law Abiding Citizen starring Jamie Foxx and Gerard Butler did a better than expected $7.5M Friday and could open to as much as $20M from 2,889 venues.
+Paranormal Activity made $6.25M Friday from a wider release onto 760 screens for #3 and a probable high teens weekend.
+Universal's holdover comedy Couples Retreat sank to #4 with $6M Friday (-50%) for an estimated $19M from 3,009 plays.
+Stepfather #5 on 2,734 dates to debut with only $4.3M Friday and maybe an $11M weekend.

Rest of top 5:
6. Zombieland (Sony) Week 3 [3,171 theaters] $2.5M Fri, Est $8M Wkd
7. Cloudy/Meatballs (Sony) Week 5 [3,037] $1.9M Fri, Est $8M Wkd
8. Toy Story 3-D (Disney) Week 3 [1,467] $900K Fri, Est $3.5M Wkd
9. Surrogates (Disney) Week 4 [2,326] $700K Fri, Est $2.3M Wkd
10. Invention Of Lying (WB) Week 3 [1,624] $675K Fri, Est $2.2M Wkd

Honestly, I was wondering why everyone had Law Abiding Citizen at $10-12 million. With its premise and ad campaign, I knew it would easily pass that number.

Some very good numbers this week. PA is still going strong despite being in only 700-odd theaters, and SF is doing much better than anyone expected it to.

Very good numbers as well for WTWTA and LAC.

Insane weekend for October. I guess we'll have 5 movies in September-October making over $100 million and another over $90 million.