Weekend Report: 'Lion' Remains 'King,' 'Moneyball,' 'Dolphin Tale' Go Extra Innings
Four newcomers, two of which opened to over $20 million, weren't quite strong enough to unseat The Lion King (in 3D), which held the top spot for the second weekend in a row. Moneyball and Dolphin Tale had strong starts and are currently neck-and-neck for second place, while Abduction and Killer Elite both underperformed. Overall, the weekend box office tallied at least $116 million, which makes it the highest-grossing September weekend ever.
The Lion King was off a light 27 percent to $22.1 million, bringing the re-release's 10-day total to $61.7 million. When added to previous Lion King grosses, the movie has now made a whopping $390.2 million, which is good for 12th place on the all-time domestic chart. The movie is poised to easily top $400 million and move in to the all-time Top 10, but that's probably going to require extending the run past the two-week engagement that was initially planned.
After winning on Friday, Moneyball had to settle for second place for the weekend with an estimated $20.6 million from 2,993 locations. It topped The Benchwarmers ($19.7 million) for best start ever for a baseball movie, and it also ranked fifth all-time among sports dramas. While the opening is on the low end for a Brad Pitt movie, it was slightly above September 2008's Burn After Reading ($19.1 million). Finally, the movie was up a tad from Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps ($19 million) but down from The Social Network ($22.45 million). Sony/Columbia is reporting that 51 percent of the audience was male and 64 percent were over the age of 35, and it received an "A" CinemaScore.
Dolphin Tale wasn't too far behind with an estimated $20.26 million, and there's a chance it finishes ahead of Moneyball when actual grosses are reported on Monday afternoon. The debut is way up from April's Soul Surfer and also an improvement on Hotel for Dogs ($17 million). In fact, if estimates hold it will top Eight Below ($20.19 million) for the best opening ever for a live-action animal-centric family movie. Distributor Warner Bros. is reporting that the audience was 66 percent female and 51 percent under the age of 25, and that crowd awarded the movie a rare "A+" CinemaScore. An estimated 50 percent of the grosses came from 3D presentations at around 2,700 locations.
It appears like Taylor Lautner is the latest Twilight star to struggle outside of the franchise: Abduction opened to a weak estimated $11.2 million from 3,118 locations. That's less than half of Eagle Eye's $29.2 million opening from three years ago, and also off from fellow Twilight star Robert Pattinson's Water for Elephants ($16.8 million). The audience breakdown was 68 percent female and 56 percent under the age of 25, and the movie received a "B-" CinemaScore (though that improves to an "A-" rating among females under 18).
Killer Elite wound up in last place among the newcomers with an estimated $9.5 million. That's on the low end for recent Jason Statham movies, with The Mechanic ($11.4 million), Transporter 3 ($12.1 million) and Death Race ($12.6 million) all coming in ahead. Demographic information is not available, but the movie did earn a "B" CinemaScore.
Contagion dipped 41 percent to an estimated $8.6 million, bringing its 17-day total to $57.1 million.
Drive declined 49 percent to $5.8 million, which is a reasonable hold considering the movie's genre and "C-" CinemaScore. Through 10 days, the Ryan Gosling thriller has earned $21.4 million.
The Help extended its impressive run by easing 32 percent to an estimated $4.4 million. It has now earned a huge $154.4 million.
Straw Dogs and I Don't Know How She Does It both tumbled in their second frame. Straw Dogs was off 59 percent to $2.1 million for a weak 10-day total of $8.9 million, while I Don't Know How She Does It fell 53 percent to $2.05 million for a total just north of $8 million.
