Weekend Box Office: Hurricane Irene Wrecks Ticket Sales
by Andy Neuenschwander
"The Help" managed to stay on top in its third week with a haul of about $14.3 million, continuing its surprising run at the box office. The movie continues to play well in varied markets: it's popular in the South of course, considering its setting, but since it is based on a New York Times bestselling novel, it also plays well in areas like New York City.
The cumulative total for the surprise hit is now about about $97 million and should pass $100 million this coming week. Who knew?
In second place was the first of three big new openers this weekend, "Colombiana." The actioner stars Zoe Saldana and comes from Luc Besson, who created "The Transporter" and "Taken," among others, so its not much of a surprise that it performed better than the other openers. "Colombiana" took in about $10.3 million, which is obviously less than anticipated but, you know, that whole hurricane thing happened.
In third was the new horror flick "Don't Be Afraid of the Dark," which definitely had reason to be afraid of the weekend: it earned only $8.6 million. While the storm can be blamed for some of that, reviews and poor audience reaction might be some of the cause as well. Critics didn't like the movie much at all, and audiences gave it a C- on Cinemascore, which is a bad sign for a horror film, which usually work with word of mouth. The movie tried to bring in audiences by throwing Guillermo Del Toro's name into every ad, but Del Toro only produced and did not direct. Chances are good that "Dark" won't hold over well to next weekend.
Fourth and fifth place went to two returning movies, "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" and "Spy Kids 4: All the Time in the World." Considering the conditions this weekend and the fact that it's in its fourth week, "Apes" had a strong showing with about $8.6 million, effectively tying with "Don't Be Afraid of the Dark." The cume for "Apes" now stands at just under $150 mil. "Spy Kids 4D" had a 50% drop in its second weekend, bringing in $5.7 million for a cume of $21.7M. Very poor reviews will likely not help it along.
Tying with "Spy Kids" at fifth was the third opener of the weekend, "Our Idiot Brother." The movie has a promising cast including Paul Rudd, Elizabeth Banks, Zooey Deschanel and Emily Mortimer (it's a quirk-fest!), but critics found it only passable with a slightly muddy scripts and audiences we underwhelmed. "Brother" took in about $5.7 million as well, an especially disappointing opening, even with the storm in consideration.
But "Our Idiot Brother," "Don't Be Afraid of the Dark" and "Colombiana" might be able to make up for the weekend a bit by having strong holds to their second weekends. Audiences that wanted to see the movies but couldn't might head out next weekend...though with lackluster reviews for all three and a new slate of movies out next weekend, there's no guarantee that things will play out that way.
- "The Help" - $14.3 million
- "Colombiana" - $10.3 million
- "Don't Be Afraid of the Dark" - $8.6 million
- "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" - $8.6 million
- "Spy Kids 4: All the Time in the World" - $5.7 million
- "Our Idiot Brother" - $5.7 million