Weekend Box Office (October 15 - 17, 2010)

by Sujit Chawla

THIS WEEKEND Proving once again that film audiences enjoy the lowest common denominator, Jackass 3D destroyed the rest of the box office this weekend setting a new record for the month of October while fellow newcomer Red also posted a positive result.

Four years after the last installment of the men behaving badly series, Jackass 3D used the awesome power of 3D (and 3D ticket prices) to jump start the box office with a massive $50.4M debut, according to final studio figures. The film is now the new king of October opening weekends dethroning the reigning champ of the last seven years, fellow threequel Scary Movie 3, which opened in October of 2003 with $48.1M.

The movie opened with $22M on Friday (setting the single-day October record), fell 24% to $16.7M on Saturday and dropped only 31% to $11.6M on Sunday. Apparently the quick death of 3D has been postponed as audiences filled the theaters and had no problem paying the extra surcharges to watch the demented Johnny Knoxville and company reach deep into their bag of tricks. In one weekend Jackass 3D is near the totals of the past two films, which made $64.3M and $72.8M in 2002 and 2006.

Landing solidly into second place was the elderly spy flick Red which shot up $21.8M this weekend from 3,255 theaters for a per screen average of $6,686. Reviews for the Summit film, which stars Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman, John Malkovich, and Helen Mirren have been mostly positive.

Continuing its strong run, Sony's tale of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, The Social Network fell a slim 33% this weekend to $10.3M bringing its cume to $62.4M. The film should easily join the century club, and with a slew of awards coming, probably fly higher. Following in fourth was the horse drama from Disney, Secretariat which had the best hold in the top ten, sliding only 27% to $9.3M. Its cume is $27.3M and could find its way to a decent, if not spectacular, finish of around $65M.

Warner Brothers took up the next three spots at the box office with three completely different films. Last week's runner-up, the romantic comedy Life as We Know It dropped 38% from last weekend to $9M. Its total now stands at $28.6M on its way to a final cume of around $55M. In sixth place was the kid-friendly owls of Legend of the Guardians which continues to post small declines week to week, falling 39% to $4.2M. Its cume is $46M. Ben Affleck's The Town slid 38% into seventh place with $4M, bringing its total to $80.5M.

Suffering the worst fall in the top 10 was Universal's horror entry My Soul to Take which dropped 54% to $3.2M, bringing its cume to a paltry $11.9M. Look for a final total of around $18-20M and quick trip to the rental market. Ninth place belonged to Emma Stone (soon to be seen in the Spider-Man reboot) as her comedy Easy A rounded up $2.6M for a fall of 39% from last weekend. Its cume now stands at $52.3M. And rounding out the top ten was Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps which fell 49% to $2.4M in its fourth weekend, bringing its total to $47.9M.

In limited release, two high profile titles opened to strong and slightly-less strong results. Clint Eastwood's latest directorial effort Hereafter grossed $220,322 from only 6 screens for a per screen average of $36,720. Doubling up on screens but taking in half the gross was the Hilary Swank starrer Conviction which made $102,351 from 11 screens for a solid $9,305 average.

Compared to projections, Jackass 3D nearly doubled Gitesh's $26M forecast while Red opened just ahead of his $17M prediction.

Get earlier box office updates and analysis by following BoxOfficeGuru.com on Twitter.

For reviews of The Social Network and Beauty and the Beast on Blu-ray, visit The Chief Report.

Be sure to check back on Thursday for a complete summary, including projections, for next weekend when Paranormal Activity 2 and Hereafter open wide.

Marketplace - Shop for DVDs, electronics, books, and posters at discounted prices:

# Title Oct 15 - 17 Oct 8 - 10 % Chg. Theaters Weeks AVG Cumulative Distributor
1 Jackass 3D $ 50,353,641 3,081 1 $ 16,343 $ 50,353,641 Paramount
2 Red 21,761,408 3,255 1 6,686 21,761,408 Summit
3 The Social Network 10,317,395 15,451,991 -33.2 2,868 3 3,597 62,436,364 Sony
4 Secretariat 9,318,886 12,694,770 -26.6 3,072 2 3,033 27,332,941 Buena Vista
5 Life As We Know It 8,955,409 14,506,464 -38.3 3,150 2 2,843 28,620,147 Warner Bros.
6 Legend of the Guardians 4,228,236 6,888,019 -38.6 2,502 4 1,690 45,994,776 Warner Bros.
7 The Town 3,977,006 6,411,008 -38.0 2,368 5 1,679 80,510,629 Warner Bros.
8 My Soul to Take 3,170,310 6,842,220 -53.7 2,529 2 1,254 11,915,595 Universal
9 Easy A 2,633,456 4,289,418 -38.6 2,314 5 1,138 52,317,481 Sony
10 Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps 2,363,166 4,603,123 -48.7 2,045 4 1,156 47,894,896 Fox
11 It's Kind of a Funny Story 1,223,455 2,013,406 -39.2 757 1 1,616 4,005,161 Focus
12 You Again 1,215,987 2,512,782 -51.6 1,588 3 766 22,982,000 Buena Vista
13 Case 39 1,206,817 2,680,305 -55.0 1,406 2 858 11,924,115 Paramount
14 N-Secure 1,166,406 486 1 2,400 1,166,406 Freestyle
15 Devil 976,005 1,809,695 -46.1 891 4 1,095 31,577,470 Universal
16 Let Me In 830,676 2,447,618 -66.1 1,211 2 686 11,046,691 Overture
17 Alpha and Omega 823,085 1,500,390 -45.1 969 4 849 22,567,621 Lionsgate
18 Waiting for "Superman" 742,725 630,863 17.7 182 3 4,081 2,523,075 Paramount
19 Toy Story 3 534,680 555,096 -3.7 350 18 1,528 412,844,168 Buena Vista
20 Inception 348,326 492,311 -29.2 297 14 1,173 289,751,947 Warner Bros.
Top 5 $ 100,706,739 $ 56,383,464 78.6
Top 10 117,078,913 76,880,100 52.3
Top 20 126,147,075 88,320,726 42.8
Top 20 vs. 2009 126,147,075 124,637,646 1.2

Last Updated: October 18, 2010 at 5:30PM ET

Watch Gitesh Pandya's weekly box office preview on CNN International airing live each Thursday at 7:40pm ET.