Hurricane Irene provided a perfect excuse for crappy openings at the box office over the weekend, and in the second-slowest weekend of the year (behind Super Bowl weekend), it surely did have some effect. It didn’t help that the three movies opening were a hot-chick-out-for-revenge movie (didn’t they just release this a few months ago? wasn’t it called Hanna?), a remake of a made-for-TV movie about a haunted house (it would be difficult for me to care less), and a small-budget Paul Rudd flick for white intellectuals (it already earned back its budget, so there’s that). Talk about a whirlwind of disappointment, am I right???
Hurricane or no, The Help did just fine in its third weekend in theaters. A movie about a hot white chick curing racism… still earning despite a hurricane… why, it’s almost as if its audience for that doesn’t live on the coast. Elsewhere, Conan the Barbarian has earned just $16.6 million in 10 days. Which is okay because it only cost… holy sh*t, $90 million? You guys are f*cked. Rise of the Planet of the Apes is up to nearly $150 million in 22 days, outpacing X-Men First Class in the same period. I’m still trying to wrap my mind around Fox having made the two best blockbusters of the summer. It’s like seeing Hitler walk a Jew’s dog. It doesn’t make up for everything, but it’s a start.
| This Week |
Last Week |
Title (click to view) | Studio | Weekend Gross | % Change | Theater Count / Change | Average | Total Gross | Budget* | Week # | |
| 1 | 1 | The Help | BV | $14,333,000 | -28.4% | 2,778 | +88 | $5,159 | $96,630,000 | $25 | 3 |
| 2 | N | Colombiana | TriS | $10,300,000 | – | 2,614 | – | $3,940 | $10,300,000 | $40 | 1 |
| 3 | N | Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark | FD | $8,689,000 | – | 2,760 | – | $3,148 | $8,689,000 | $25 | 1 |
| 4 | 2 | Rise of the Planet of the Apes | Fox | $8,650,000 | -46.3% | 3,374 | -97 | $2,564 | $148,456,000 | $93 | 4 |
| 5 | N | Our Idiot Brother | Wein. | $6,588,000 | – | 2,555 | – | $2,578 | $6,588,000 | $5 | 1 |
| 6 | 3 | Spy Kids: All the Time in the World | W/Dim. | $5,727,000 | -50.8% | 3,305 | +10 | $1,733 | $21,710,000 | $27 | 2 |
| 7 | 5 | The Smurfs | Sony | $4,800,000 | -38.5% | 2,861 | -196 | $1,678 | $125,993,000 | $110 | 5 |
| 8 | 4 | Conan the Barbarian (2011) | LGF | $3,100,000 | -69.1% | 3,015 | – | $1,028 | $16,576,000 | $90 | 2 |
| 9 | 6 | Fright Night (2011) | BV | $3,029,000 | -60.7% | 3,114 | – | $973 | $14,207,000 | $30 | 2 |
| 10 | 10 | Crazy, Stupid, Love. | WB | $2,905,000 | -39.4% | 1,577 | -363 | $1,842 | $69,529,000 | $50 | 5 |
[via BoxOfficeMojo]