The weekend after Labor Day is usually a dead zone at the North American box office. Witness the horrific $7.1 million opening of Nicolas Cage’s Bangkok Dangerous a year ago this weekend… and that was the number one movie that weekend! Despite the return of Alice and the undead, the box office still had to contend with the start of the NFL season and found itself 10.5% off from last year at this time and an even steeper 22% from 2008’s top ten for this weekend.
With no other new movie opening wide this weekend, Resident Evil: Afterlife was all but guaranteed to take the top spot at the box office. The question was by how much and the answer proved to be by a pretty large margin. By filming the latest chapter in 3D, which as we all know brings with it higher ticket prices, the movie commanded a solid $27.7 million from 3,203 screens (of which 2,000 were 3D). Reviews were in line with previous chapters of the eight-year old franchise: awful. But fans could care less what critics have to say about a film like Resident Evil, especially when it’s the fourth go-around. All they want is 100 minutes of Milla Jovovich kicking all sorts of ass onscreen which is exactly what they got. With the debut for Afterlife setting a franchise record, a fifth one is undoubtedly in the works.
The rest of the top ten consisted of summer leftovers, most which saw sizeable drops in attendance from the weak Labor Day holiday weekend. Screen Gems, who also released the number one movie this weekend, also commanded the second spot as it saw the unban action thriller Takers steal $6.1 million in its third weekend out. Off 44%, the Paul Walker film has taken approximately $49 million to date and could finish with a healthy $60-65 million.
In third place was last weekend’s number one film The American which fell by a troubling 55% to $5.9 million for the weekend and a ten-day total of $28.3 million. With a CinemaScore rating of “D-” and a steep second-weekend drop, it appears few like what they see. Unlike some of his other recent efforts, this George Clooney film is looking to vanish quickly from movie theaters and may see its grosses finish near the $38-40 million mark.
Suffering a big 64% drop was Robert Rodriguez’ Machete. It chopped up $4.2 million to land in fourth place for a new ten-day total of $20 million. The film should hack and slash its way to $27-30 million by the end of its run. Warner’s romantic comedy Going the Distance kissed 44% less this weekend than last to land in fifth with $3.8 million for an awful ten-day take of only $14 million.
Sony’s long-running comedy hit The Other Guys held up fairly well in the post-holiday frame to land in sixth place. Dropping a slight 32%, the film collared $3.6 million from 2,246 screens for a new total of approximately $113 million. Proving to be 53% less possessed this weekend, Lionsgate’s The Last Exorcism scared up $3.4 million to land in seventh place and bring its new total to $38.1 million. The $1 million production should finish with roughly $45 million in late summer ticket sales.
Dropping by half this weekend to land in eighth place was the action hit The Expendables with $3.25 million to bring its total to the $98 million mark. Sylvester Stallone and the guys should call it a day somewhere near the $110 million mark. In ninth place with a slight 34% drop was Christopher Nolan’s summer blockbuster Inception which extracted $3 million to bring its domestic total to approximately $283 million. Rounding out the top ten this weekend was Julia Roberts’ Eat Pray Love which eased a decent 39% to earn another $2.9 million and push its total to $74.6 million so far.
Next weekend Ben Affleck’s second directorial effort The Town arrives on the movie scene. Also arriving are the horror film Devil, the 3D animated feature Alpha and Omega and the Emma Stone high school comedy Easy A. Predict what these films might make in our Weekend Box Office Prophet Game for a chance at Blu-ray prizes. The next round kicks off in a couple days.
– Shawn Fitzgerald
