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WILD THINGS Tops Box Office
Paranormal Activity's Success Story Continues. By
Jarrod Sarafin
October 18, 2009
Where the Wild Things Are tops Box Office(2009).
© Warner Bros./Bob Trate
With the Halloween festivities set to kick off in the next two weekends, audiences clearly chose to flock to theaters a week early. The top five films of this report all managed $10+ million, the top three films hit at least $20+ million while the one on top crossed the $30+ mark. Decent returns when considering nobody hit the $20 mil mark this same weekend last year.
Warner Bros. executives can breathe a sigh of relief with Where the Wild Things Are launching into 1st place over the weekend. Held back nearly a year because studio officials were nervous about its bankability, requiring director Spike Jonze to go back with more post-production changes, the film racked up an estimated $32.4 million in its first three days of release. With it hitting 3,735 theaters it averaged $8,693 per showing for audiences across the nation and has it in decent shape against a $100 mil budget.
Overture Films also has a successful debut to celebrate with their revenge-thriller, Law Abiding Citizen. The Gerard Butler-Jamie Foxx vehicle grabbed $21.2 million in its first weekend of release, averaging $7,353 per showing in 2,890 theaters. Since the budget was relatively low at just $50 mil, the small distributor has a very good shot of another successful product here.
Most definitely the biggest story of October and possibly the entire fall season is Paramount Pictures’ launch strategy and profitability of Paranormal Activity. Building off the excitement of its previous weekend numbers, the studio expanded their horror release into 760 theaters and somehow found $20.1 million. Those kind of numbers translates to an average of $26,530 per showing. After four weekends of release, the film has a domestic gross of $33.7 million. Incredible numbers for a film which reportedly cost only $11,000 to produce. This film will clearly be the most profitable major release of 2009.
With the new films racking in decent debuts, Universal Pictures’ comedy Couples Retreat dropped down to 4th place by taking in a respectable $17.9 million. Even with the fourth place finish, the studio is in decent shape by earning $63.3 million over the course of its first ten days of release. It doesn’t have very far to go before it hits their budget of $70 million.
And debuting in 5th place is Screen Gems’ remake of The Stepfather. Like most Screen Gems releases, the film’s first weekend tally of $12.3 million means another success story as the genre distributor always keeps their budgets very low. The cost for this production is set at only $20 million.
That does it for the top 5 but before we go, it should be noted that Zombieland found another $7.8 million in 7th place to make it the highest-grossing zombie release of all-time. With this weekend in the bag, the film now has a domestic cume of $60.8 mil. This has leaping past the previous zombie champion, Zack Snyder’s 2004 remake of Dawn of the Dead ($59.0 mil). And with quite a few weekends left before it’s pulled from the box office it definitely has some time to pad that lead.
| Rank | Movie | Weekend | Theaters | Average | Total | Budget |
| 1 | Where the Wild Things Are | $32.4 mil | 3,735 | $8,693 | $32.4 mil | $100 |
| 2 | Law Abiding Citizen | $21.2 mil | 2,890 | $7,353 | $21.2 mil | $50 |
| 3 | Paranormal Activity | $20.1 mil | 760 | $26,530 | $33.7 mil | ---- |
| 4 | Couples Retreat | $17.9 mil | 3,009 | $5,965 | $63.3 mil | $70 |
| 5 | The Stepfather | $12.3 mil | 2,734 | $4,499 | $12.3 mil | $20 |
| 6 | Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs | $8.1 mil | 3,037 | $2,667 | $108.2 mil | $100 |
| 7 | Zombieland | $7.8 mil | 3,171 | $2,460 | $60.8 mil | $23.6 |
| 8 | Toy Story/Toy Story 2 3-D | $3.0 mil | 1,489 | $2,022 | $28.5 mil | ---- |
| 9 | Surrogates | $1.9 mil | 2,326 | $826 | $36.3 mil | $80 |
| 10 | The Invention of Lying | $1.9 mil | 1,624 | $1,173 | $15.4 mil | $18.5 |
Friday October 23, 2009 Releases:
Wide
Saw VI (3,000+)
Astro Boy (3,000+)
Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant (2,750+)
Amelia (800)
Limited
Ong Bak 2
Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas 3-D
Motherhood
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I would guess Paramount is going to open up Paranormal to over 2000 screen this weekend or they are really freaking stupid if they don't. Everyone is talking about this movie. Hype alone is already making it a monster on less than 1000 screens. I really think it would beat out SAW this weekend...any word on Paramounts plans?
Zombieland, haven't seen it but will check it out on rental. Impressive numbers and its stayed alive longer than anyone thought it would.
My wife went with her girlfriends to see Law Abiding citizen this weekend. Gerald Butler reasons of course, but said even without him in the movie it would have still been really good.