David Fincher’s movie on the creation of Facebook, The Social Network, friended more people this weekend at the North American box office as it held off the debut of the Katherine Heigl domestic comedy Life As We Know It, Disney’s sports drama Secretariat and Wes Craven’s 3D horror opus My Soul to Take to remain in the top spot. Overall, business remained sluggish as the top ten weekend box office was down 6.8% from last weekend and 16% from this time last year.
Off a slight 31% from its debut weekend, The Social Network pulled in an estimated $15 million this weekend to bring its ten-day total to a solid $46 million. Benefitting from strong reviews and now positive word-of-mouth from moviegoers, the future awards contender looks to have a healthy road ahead of it at the box office. Budgeted at $50 million, the Sony hit continues the studio’s 2010 winning streak and could finish its run near the magical $100 million mark when all is said and done.
Despite displacing The Social Network on Friday, Warner’s Life As We Know It had to settle for second place in its debut despite playing on 380 more theaters than the Fincher film. The Katherine Heigl and Josh Duhamel film mirrored the actress’ last film Killers: each grossed a modest amount in their first three days ($15.8 million for Killers, $14.7 million from 3,150 screens for Life) and each was trashed by the nation’s critics. Maybe Katherine should have stayed on TV after all.
Faring better with critics than Life was Secretariat, Disney’s fact-based drama about the legendary horse. But critical huzzahs don’t guarantee ticket buyers coming out in droves as a $12.6 million opening on 3,072 screens proved. Perhaps it was due to the fact that Disney tried to sell the movie as another Seabiscuit or The Blind Side, or possibly younger viewers saw the title and thought it was a film about an office administrative assistant. Either way, it appears that the participation of Secretariat in the weekend box office race will be somewhat short lived.
Fourth place went to Warner’s 3D animated feature Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole, which fell 35% from last weekend to an estimated $7 million. The added business brings its three-week total to $39.4 million. While the weekend-to-weekend drops have been moderate, Warner can’t help but feel a bit disappointed in the film’s performance thus far. The $80 million production from Watchmen director Zack Snyder should finish its domestic run around $55 million.
Universal launched director Wes Craven’s first outright horror film in over a decade, the 3D film My Soul To Keep, and saw very little in return from both the filmmaker’s fan base or anyone else for that matter. Launching on 2,572 screens, Soul could only muster $6.9 million in its first three days out and that is with the added benefit of 3D ticket surcharges. The poor debut of Soul marks the third horror genre film to debut poorly at the box office this month following last weekend’s one two misfire of Paramount’s Case 39 and Overture’s acclaimed Let Me In.
Ben Affleck’s Beantown crime flick The Town held tough in its fourth weekend, easing 34% to land in sixth place with $6.35 million in estimated sales for a new total of $73.8 million. Like The Social Network, The Town could see its grosses possibly reach the $100 million mark (or higher) if the film makes an impact come awards season. Seventh place went to Fox’s fast-fading sequel Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps. Dropping 53% from last weekend, the Michael Douglas drama nabbed $4.6 million to bring its domestic total to the $43.6 million mark. The Oliver Stone-directed film should finish its run with approximately $55-57 million.
The Emma Stone high school comedy Easy A eased its way into eighth place with $4.2 million for a new four-week total of $48 million. The well-reviewed comedy should wind down its run near the $60 million mark. In ninth place was Paramount’s Case 39 which dropped 50% from its soft opening last weekend to haul in $2.6 million for an awful ten-day total of $9.6 million. Rounding out the top ten was the Kirsten Bell comedy You Again. Off 57% from the weekend before, the movie hauled in $2.4 million to bring its total to the $20 million mark.
Finalized weekend box office actual results will be published Monday afternoon.
– Shawn Fitzgerald
