Weekend Box Office (August 31 - September 3, 2007)

by Gitesh Pandya

THIS WEEKEND A record summer box office ended on a high note with a record Labor Day weekend led by Rob Zombie's new take on the horror classic Halloween which scored the biggest opening ever for this holiday frame. The R-rated creepfest grossed $30.6M over the four-day Friday-to-Monday period, according to final studio figures, for MGM and The Weinstein Co. from an ultrawide 3,472 theaters for a powerful $8,811 average. That was enough to slash through the previous holiday best of $20.1M from 2005's Transporter 2 by a stunning 52%. Over the Friday-to-Sunday portion, the pic scored $26.5M and a $7,622 average. The gross for the Michael Myers fright pic surged ahead of industry expectations and ranked as the best horror opening since Saw III's three-day tally of $33.6M from last Halloween.

Marking the end of summer and a time when students begin going back to school, Labor Day weekend is typically the weakest of all the holiday weekends during the year. But the overall summer movie season was anything but. The domestic box office generated over $4 billion led by seven blockbusters that crossed the $200M mark with four sailing past the $300M milestone. Both were new industry highs. Overseas, the box office was on fire with sequels dominating international multiplexes.


Top Ten Global Summer Blockbusters

# Film Gross ($M)
1 Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End 958
2 Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix 912
3 Spider-Man 3 890
4 Shrek the Third 757
5 Transformers 685
6 The Simpsons Movie 482
7 Ratatouille 390
8 Die Hard 4.0 356
9 Ocean's Thirteen 305
10 The Bourne Ultimatum 278


Sony's two-time champ Superbad held up well in its third frame this weekend and grossed $15.9M for a 18-day cume of $92.7M. Another comedy aimed at young people, Balls of Fury, opened in the third spot with $14.1M from 3,052 locations for a decent four-day average of $4,624. Since its Wednesday launch, the ping pong pic has taken in $17.1M for Focus.

For the fourth consecutive weekend the threequels The Bourne Ultimatum and Rush Hour 3 were back-to-back on the charts. The Matt Damon assassin smash took in $13.4M for a total of $202.8M while the Jackie Chan-Chris Tucker action-comedy dropped to $10.8M for a $122.7M sum. Bourne crossed the $200M mark on Labor Day.

Following in sixth was Universal's Mr. Bean's Holiday with $7.9M for $20.9M to date. The Nanny Diaries fell to $6.6M for MGM giving the comedy just $16.7M in ten days. Kevin Bacon stumbled into eighth place with his vigilante thriller Death Sentence which bowed to $5.3M from 1,822 sites for an average of only $2,929 for Fox.

Jet Li and Jason Statham followed in ninth with War which crumbled in its sophomore frame to $5.3M giving Lionsgate $18.2M in ten days. Paramount's fairy tale adventure Stardust rounded out the top ten with $4.1M for a $32.1M total.

Three films dropped out of the top ten over the weekend. The Simpsons Movie laughed up $3.6M and boosted its sensational domestic haul to $178.5M on its way to what should be a final tally of about $185M. Overseas, the Fox smash broke through the $300M barrier this weekend and hopes to see its global gross surge past $500M.

New Line's hit musical Hairspray posted another strong performance banking $3.6M over four days to raise its cume to $112.4M. A final domestic gross of at least $120M seems likely. Not faring well was the Nicole Kidman sci-fi thriller The Invasion which tumbled down to $1.5M for a poor $14.1M total after 18 days. Paramount should end up snatching a miserable $16M.

Total North American grosses for some of the summer's older hits include $310.6M for Transformers, $286.8M for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, $201.2M for Ratatouille, and $116.6M for I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry.

The top ten films grossed $114.1M over four days (a new Labor Day weekend record) which was up 28% from last year when Invincible remained in first place with $15.4M in its second session; and up 25% from 2005 when Transporter 2 opened in the top spot with a then-record $20.1M.


Compared to projections, Halloween surged ahead of my $20M forecast while Balls of Fury and Death Sentence both opened close to my respective predictions of $14M and $7M.

For a review of Balls of Fury visit The Chief Report.

Be sure to check back on Thursday for a complete summary, including projections, for next weekend when 3:10 to Yuma, Shoot 'Em Up, and The Brothers Solomon all open.

Marketplace: Shop for videos, DVDs, music, books, and posters at discounted prices using search engines

# Title Aug 31 - Sep 3 Aug 24 - 26 % Chg. Theaters Weeks AVG Cumulative Distributor
1 Halloween $ 30,591,759 3,472 1 $ 8,811 $ 30,591,759 MGM
2 Superbad 15,852,355 18,044,369 -12.1 3,002 3 5,281 92,687,150 Sony
3 Balls of Fury 14,111,455 3,052 1 4,624 17,072,182 Focus
4 The Bourne Ultimatum 13,390,340 12,472,215 7.4 3,290 5 4,070 202,810,455 Universal
5 Rush Hour 3 10,839,063 11,706,643 -7.4 3,008 4 3,603 122,695,339 New Line
6 Mr. Bean's Holiday 7,933,690 9,889,780 -19.8 1,765 2 4,495 20,934,120 Universal
7 The Nanny Diaries 6,567,907 7,480,927 -12.2 2,636 2 2,492 16,719,283 MGM
8 Death Sentence 5,337,257 1,822 1 2,929 5,337,257 Fox
9 War 5,326,797 9,820,089 -45.8 2,277 2 2,339 18,166,199 Lionsgate
10 Stardust 4,135,246 3,872,560 6.8 1,766 4 2,342 32,144,100 Paramount
11 The Simpsons Movie 3,630,550 4,317,689 -15.9 2,066 6 1,757 178,526,451 Fox
12 Hairspray 3,629,849 3,265,384 11.2 1,604 7 2,263 112,415,489 New Line
13 Harry Potter and the Order... 2,575,376 2,402,412 7.2 1,017 8 2,532 286,825,495 Warner Bros.
14 Underdog 2,335,288 2,516,604 -7.2 1,602 5 1,458 39,999,406 Buena Vista
15 Becoming Jane 2,129,845 1,911,867 11.4 1,162 5 1,833 15,724,651 Miramax
16 Ladron Que Roba A Ladron 2,032,967 340 1 5,979 2,032,967 Lionsgate
17 I Now Pronounce You Chuck... 1,699,625 2,033,570 -16.4 1,076 7 1,580 116,637,095 Universal
18 Ratatouille 1,675,029 1,168,729 43.3 1,068 10 1,568 201,249,448 Buena Vista
19 Transformers 1,544,222 1,148,876 34.4 937 9 1,648 310,578,372 Paramount
20 The Invasion 1,492,403 3,093,428 -51.8 1,375 3 1,085 14,104,358 Warner Bros.
Top 5 $ 84,784,972 $ 61,933,096 36.9
Top 10 114,085,869 83,963,084 35.9
Top 20 136,831,023 100,585,044 36.0
Top 20 vs. 2006 136,831,023 117,649,777 16.3

Last Updated: September 4, 2007 at 7:15PM ET

Watch Gitesh Pandya's weekly box office preview on CNN International airing live each Friday at 9:50am ET.