Monster box office … scene from Where the Wild Things Are
The winner
Warner Bros and Spike Jonze will have existence delighted with the $32.5m (£19.9m) No 1 launch for their appropriateness of Where the Wild Things Are. After dozens of reports about production woes (including that, at one characteristic, the heads on the beasts were too heavy for the actors), creative differences and a veritable seesaw of will-it-work, won’t-it-work speculation, this utterly non-linear joy delivered every excellent opening result. Jonze’s film of Maurice Sendak’s feral children’s legend will be one of the few new family releases on the outside there in the weeks ahead and bequeath lack to capitalise on its niche appeal. Despite the subject matter, the studio reported that almost moiety the audience were aged over 18 while children accompanied by adults accounted for a contemptible under one-third of those who turned out.
- Where the Wild Things Are
- Production year: 2009
- Country: USA
- Cert (UK): U
- Runtime: 60 mins
- Directors: Spike Jonze
- Cast: Catherine Keener, Forest Whitaker, James Gandolfini
Overture Films, a juvenile distributor with a lot going on this season (Capitalism: A Love Story and The Men Who Stare at Goats) enjoyed the best launch of its career as the crime drama Law Abiding Citizen with Gerard Butler and Jamie Foxx opened in second place adhering $21.3m. And that little genre movie you may have heard about, Paranormal Activity, continued to play well. The handheld horror expanded in its fourth weekend from 160 to 760 cinemas and climbed one place to third, adding a whopping $20.2m to raise the current score to $33.7m. Not bad for a movie that cost mentor Oren Peli $15,000 to make.
The loser
You have to say it’sitting The Stepfather, because even through the movie is believed to have cost in the region of $20m to produce and is on course to making back its money, Sony would have been looking for a higher finish. $12.3m from 2,734 theatres resulted in a mediocre $4,500 per-cinema average. Distributors whose movies dress in’privately gross a lot in any given weekend want this metric to be over $10,000 before they start crowing about a debut, so the horror thriller has got off to an unremarkable start. Universal’s comedy Couples Retreat took a tumble in its second weekend but has reached $63.3m. Considering the year Universal has had, its execs will probably exist pleased when this united finishes in the $80m-plus range.
The dark horse
There’s a fun blaxploitation adoration called Black Dynamite knocking around that caused a big dabble in water when it premiered at Sundance at the start of the year and is well worth a male goose. The movie opened this weekend and took $141,000 from 70 sites. Not an extraordinary launch, but if new distributor Apparition builds it up over regulate, Black Dynamite may gain a cult following.
The future
Can Hilary Swank win a third Oscar for her latest role considered in the state of Amelia Earhart in Mira Nair’s Amelia? Fox Searchlight is handling the release, so expect fireworks if the movie catches on through audiences. Halloween is nearly upon us, what one. can simply mean three things: a sugar high, the annual rerelease of Disney’session The Nightmare Before Christmas in 3D, and another Saw incidental narrative. Early word on Lionsgate’sitting Saw VI is it’s one of the best in the franchise. Universal has Cirque Du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant with John C Reilly, Summit releases the manga adaptation Astro Boy, and IFC opens Lars von Trier’s magnificently malign Antichrist in limited release.
North American top 10, 16-18 October
1. Where the Wild Things Are, $32.5m
2. Law Abiding Citizen, $21.3m
3. Paranormal Activity, $20.2m. Total: $33.7m
4. Couples Retreat, $17.9m. Total: $63.3m
5. The Stepfather, $12.3m
6. Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, $8.1m. Total: $108.3m
7. Zombieland, $7.8m. Total: $60.8m
8. Toy Story/Toy Story 2 (3D), $3m. Total: $28.6m
9. Surrogates, $1.9m. Total: $36.3m
10. The Invention of Lying, $1.9m. Total: $15.5m
