Even without Irene strongly affecting the moviegoing audiences on the East Coast of the US, this year’s Labor Day weekend failed to impress as none of the new releases could particularly impress, letting The Help easily hang on to the #1 spot in its fourth week. The 3-day box-office take for the Top 12 of $80.8 million was slightly up from last week’s $74.8 million and identical to last year’s Labor Day 3-day weekend $80.8 million gross.
As mentioned above, the leggy bestseller adaptation The Help held on to the top spot of the charts for the third week in a row. Being the only movie this weekend that made over $10 million, the film took in another $14.2 million, down just 2.3% from last weekend and brought its total gross to an amazing $118.6 million. When the film just has been released and surprised everyone with its potent opening weekend, early comparisons to The Blind Side have been drawn. So far, its box-office run seems to be confirming these assumptions, even though its run is still on a smaller scale. With September not looking particularly strong and the movie having exception word of mouth, it’s likely that it’ll hang around in the Top 10 all the way into October. Therefore, an exact final gross is difficult to project for this kind of a leggy film. In a year with surprise hits that have shown incredible legs (Bridesmaids, Midnight in Paris), this might still end up as the most impressive one. Right now the film is on course to a $175-190 million, but if it manages to hold on to its theatres throughout the fall and garners awards buzz during the holiday season, I wouldn’t be surprised to see it crawl past $200 million when all is said and done. Either way, we won’t see that before December.
Continuing the tradition of adult-oriented thrillers or high-profile quality releases like Traitor, The American and The Constant Gardener, Focus Features’ The Debt was 
released last Wednesday in 1,786 theatres before adding another 40 venues on Friday. Despite the lowest theatre count among wide openers, the Mossad thriller managed the weekend’s highest opening, making $9.7 million for a per-theatre-average of $5,300. That was enough to secure the #2 spot of this weekend’s box-office. It made $11.6 million since Wednesday. It’s a solid, if not a great opening. The reviews for the film have been mostly positive, but not overwhelming. Of the aforementioned similar releases, only The Constant Gardener managed to develop really good legs, whereas the other have disappointed legs-wise in the long run. The Constant Gardener was also the only one of them to develop serious awards buzz (and it went on to win the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress). A similar fate doesn’t seem likely for The Debt, so I expect it to rather follow the trajectory of a film like Traitor, however with a somewhat better longevity since it delivered a better opening. It’ll end up with around $32-34 million in the bank.
The space-set found footage horror thriller Apollo 18 couldn’t continue the tradition of successful Labor Day weekend horror releases like Jeepers Creepers or Halloween. Though opening at the third spot of the weekend, the badly-reviewed film made only $8.7 million from 3,328 theatres (PTA of $2,614). That’s quite a letdown for the movie with the currently widest release. Since word-of-mouth appears to be mediocre at best, a total gross above $21-23 million cannot be expected.
Relativity’s Shark Night 3D certainly contributed to Apollo 13 disappointing, as both movies were vying for the same PG-13 horror-loving demographics. David R. Ellis’ second creature feature (after 2006’s Snakes on a Plane) delivered an $8.6 million weekend from 2,806 theatres for a $3,079 average). Once again, no kind of longevity can be expected here and a $21-23 million finish will happen here as well.
One of this summer’s bigger surprise hits, Rise of the Planet of the Apes dipped just 12% this weekend for another superb hold, even though it fell two spots to #5. A $7.8 million weekend take brought its running total $160 million. Deemed as “unnecessary” and “likely flop” the $93 million-budgeted movie surprised critics and box-office followers alike as it turned out to be a critical success and a sizeable box-office hit. Despite a clearly smaller opening weekend, the new take on the legendary franchise, Apes is now tracking only $7.8 million behind Tim Burton’s Planet of the Apes and that coming off a much larger fifth weekend. It’s not just the good WoM, however, that helped the movie’s success. Being the last major effects-laden blockbuster of the summer usually helps a movie’s legs as it remains the major must-see movie in theatres for a while. There isn’t much direct competition in sight, so it’ll be able to continue at its steady pace throughout September and eventually barely overtake the 2001 movie with a $181 million total. That should ensure a sequel and prove that even if an idea sounds bad on paper, it can still work out if the right talent is involved.
Filling the spot of your usual Luc Besson-produced action movies like the Transporter series, Colombiana continued its mediocre run. The Zoe Saldana actioner dropped 28.2% to #6 of the box-office as it made $7.4 million over the 3-day frame. The movie’s running total stands at $22 million after ten days in release. The film will find its way to a $37 million total.
Managing a slightly better hold, the Weinsteins’ comedy Our Idiot Brother decreased 26.1% to $5.2 million and a running total of $15.4 million as the film occupied the 7th spot of the box-office. The Paul Rudd-starrer is hardly making much of an impression, but the $5 million budget ensures that it’ll still be a financial success. It’ll leave the theatres with around $27 million in the bank. One of the main reasons why the movie is not performing must be the incredible abundance of R-rated comedies this summer. Our Idiot Brother was the 7th R-rated comedy to be released this summer since Bridesmaids’ May opening. Next weekend will see another R-rated comedy release with Sandler-produced Bucky Larson: Born to be a Star.
The Guillermo del Toro-produced horror fairy tale Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark is succumbing to mediocre WoM and harsh competition as it dropped 42% to #8 and a weekend take of $4.9 million. Its current total stands at $16.4 million which is decent given the film’s $25 million budget, but disappointing considering the film’s marketing campaign and the fact that its distributor, FilmDistrict has delivered a very impressive horror success with Insidious this year. Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark is clearly not following into its footsteps as it’ll leave the theatres with barely around $24 million in its pockets.
While Spy Kids: All the Time in the World is still a major disappointment, the lack of any family-oriented competition is obviously helping its legs. The fourth instalment in the Robert Rodriguez-directed franchise added $4.6 million in its third weekend (down 22.8%) for a running total of $29 million. It’s still a pretty embarrassing number considering it’s lower than the opening weekend of Spy Kids 3D back in 2003! However, the lack of any family-oriented releases or new 3D movies until The Lion King 3D in two weeks will help its legs. It should go on to finish with $41 million. Given its small $27 million budget, it still makes this a bona fide success for the studio, yet the overall disappointment will probably prevent any more Spy Kids movies hitting the theatres anytime soon.
Down to the 10th spot of the box-office, The Smurfs lost 15.9% of its audiences for a $4 million weekend and a $132 million total. So far the movie has been performing just as expected if not better, helped by Spy Kids’ disappointment. The movie’s currently on track to a $143 million finish, but that pales compared to its humongous performance overseas where it is nearing $300 million at the moment.
Crazy Stupid Love’s terrific legs are kicking in as it managed to become the only movie in the Top 12 to increase this weekend, even though it dropped out of the Top 10 to #11. The film rose 3.6% to $3.2 million and brought its total to $74.4 million, already beating Steve Carell’s last summer’s comedy Dinner for Schmucks. With not many romantic comedies coming to theatres in near future, the film should be able to maintain its wonderful legs for a while and end up with $84 million and an opening-to-total multiplier of well over 4.
Last, but not least, rounding off the Top 12 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 managed to hang on to its spot, decreasing only 5.4% in the process. This year’s top grosser made $2.4 million over the weekend for a terrific $374.6 million total. Over the weekend, the final instalment of the epic saga passed Spider-Man 2 for the all-time #14 spot domestically. Next up is another fantasy series finale, Return of the King with $377 million which Harry Potter will overtake within the next couple of weeks. The true test will be whether it’ll be able to pass the final Star Wars movie, Revenge of the Sith which made $380 million. Legs have been decent until now and there’s not much major competition in the fall. It’ll all depend on how long it’ll be able to keep its theatres for. Right now I project a $381 million finish, but it could really go either way.
