Universal’s Couples Retreat was the hot ticket that this past weekend’s box office with a whopping $35.3 million take from Friday through Sunday and an easy first place finish.
The Vince Vaughn and Jon Favreau comedy cruised through a sea of harsh critical reaction that saw its score at Rotten Tomatoes hovering around 10 percent fresh. The beyond expectations opening should help offset Universal’s earlier 2009 flops including Land of the Lost and Funny People that led to a personnel shake up high in the ranks.
Sony films continue to perform strong with Zombieland adding $15 million in its second weekend of release while Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs continues to pour it on with $12 million after a full month in cinemas.
Almost as big a surprise as Couples Retreat is Paramount’s Paranormal Activity which scared up $7.1 million from a measley 200 screens. A wide release is forthcoming which could lead to huge earnings for a film produced for the cost of a used car.
The complete weekend box office results for October 2-4 are as follows:
- 1. Couples Retreat: $35.3m
- 2. Zombieland: $15m
- 3. Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs: $12m
- 4. Toy Story Double Feature: $7.7m
- 5. Paranormal Activity: $7.1m
- 6. Surrogates: $4.1m
- 7. The Invention of Lying: $3.4m
- 8. Whip It: $2.8m
- 9. Capitalism: A Love Story: $2.7
- 10. Fame (2009): $2.6m
Next weekend Couples Retreat will defend its throne against newcomers Law Abiding Citizen with Jamie Foxx, The Stepfather, and Spike Jonze’s youthful fantasy Where the Wild Things Are. You can predict how each of these films will fare their opening weekend of release for a chance at prizes in our weekly interactive Weekend Box Office Prophet game.
