Puss in Boots straightened the feather in his hat and kicked off the first of what could be several Shrek spin-off films by winning its first day at the box office.
Opening on just under 4,000 screens, the Dreamworks Animation film starring the voices of Antonio Banderas and Salma Hayek clawed its way to $9.6 million at the box office on Friday. With Saturday and Sunday expected to provide matinee boosts from family audiences, Puss in Boots is still on track to finish the weekend north of $30 million.
While the Puss in Boots total thus far seems solid, it’s currently running behind the $13.1 million Kung Fu Panda 2 put up its opening day earlier this year. Even if it tops say $35 million through its first three days, that’s still a long ways off from its estimated $130 million production budget.
Second place unsurprisingly went to Paranormal Activity 3 with $6.5 million, a frightening 75 percent nose dive from the previous Friday. Keep in mind last Friday was the film’s debut and the numbers were padded by midnight screenings. Expect it to finish the weekend somewhere in the $18 to $20 million range.
The other two newcomers alongside Puss in Boots didn’t fare nearly as well. In Time with Justin Timberlake and Amanda Seyfried could only muster $4.3 million, while Johnny Depp’s The Rum Diary drowned with $1.9 million. It’s certainly either sink or swim for Depp looking back to The Tourist and Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, one of which fell way short of expectations domestically with $67 million, and the other crossed $240 million domestically and $1 billion worldwide.
Check back Sunday for the complete studio estimated weekend box office results which are all but guaranteed to feature Puss in Boots looking down at the rest.
