Geekscape’s Box Office Breakdown For The Weekend of Sept. 9th 2011!

Instead of trying to make a lame joke about The Help catching some sort of illness and finally falling out of the top spot, I’m just gonna come out and be up front with you: The Help finally fell to out of the top spot after three weeks as Contagion took the weekend crown in it’s first weekend of release.

The Top

Contagion, Steven Soderberbergh’s disease thriller with an all star cast, came out strong by pulling in just over $23 million. There’s no telling if it was having the star power of Matt Damon, Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow and many more, or the fact that it was hard for anybody not to be aware of the movie due to an aggressive marketing campaign that got people to buy tickets, but either way it’s a respectable showing.

The easiest movie to compare it to would be 1995’s Outbreak, which was another disease thriller with an all star cast and a big time director. Outbreak also opened number one, and brought in just over $13 million. When you factor in inflation and higher ticket prices, that equals just about $25 million, which is right about where Contagion came in. Because these two movies totally needed more similarities.

Comparing numbers strictly from a Soderbergh angle, Contagion’s numbers greatly improved from the last time he and Damon teamed up, 2009’s The Informant! That one was also a mid-September release, but only opened with just under $10.5 million, less than half of what this time around earned. My favorite Soderbergh movie, Out Of Sight, opened in 1998 with $12 million, which converting into 2011 dollars, would be roughly $18 million. That really adds nothing to anything, I just really love Out Of Sight.

Now it’s time to take an obligatory 9/11 approach to the weekend. Contagion’s story of disease and terror is a far cry from the feel good Keanu Reeves baseball film, Hardball, which opened number one on this weekend 10 years ago. Thanks for giving us the first step towards healing and helping us smile again, Keanu.

If all this Contagion talk has put you in the mood for some outbreak/disease/plague centric entertainment, but you don’t want to head to the theater and don’t want to dust off your VHS copy of Outbreak, I suggest you watch the 2009 Chris Pine thriller, Carriers, or the 2008  version of the British television series, Survivors, which had two amazing seasons before sadly being cancelled despite setting up for an awesome third.

Congrats to Contagion though, and an extra special kudos to the marketing team. If you want to get me interested in seeing a Gwyneth Paltrow movie, killing her off in the trailer will do wonders for that.

The Rest

The Help finally slipped down a spot after three weeks at the top. Oddly enough, it’s back in the number two spot where it debuted in it’s opening weekend. Being number one three weeks in a row is impressive on it’s own, but it’s even more amazing when you don’t even open up there. It held the top spot for 25 consecutive days, which is the longest streak since the Sixth Sense held it for 35 days back in 1999. It’s five week total currently sits at $137 million. Not bad for a film with a $25 million budget.

The Help’s success, paired with Easy A opening with a strong $22 million last year in mid-September, has solidified Emma Stone as a late-summer Goddess. So tack that onto her resume right next to “Completely Adorable.”

On to movies that look awful but I’m only hearing great things about, Warrior opened at number 3 with $5.6 million.  Despite my love for Tom Hardy, this movie doesn’t look appealing to me at all, but all I’m hearing about it is how great it is. I somewhat buy it, because the trailers seem to have the same tone as 1992’s Gladiator, which I love for some reason. Comparing them though, Gladiator’s $3.3 million opening in 92 is far more impressive than Warrior’s $5.6. To be fair though, if you saw Gladiator on it’s opening weekend you got a free copy of the soundtrack, which is one of the most awful soundtracks in film history and includes Warrant’s vomit inducing cover of Queen’s We Will Rock You.

Warrior’s trailers seem to be the problem, because based on the low opening numbers, I’m clearly not the only one whose interest isn’t peaked by them despite being shown constantly. People that are actually seeing it seem to be loving it, and finding it quite an emotional tale. Whereas the trailers just make it look meathead-y. I think the only thing that can turn this is around is to learn from history. Obviously the solution is to give out a copy of the soundtrack to 1992’s Gladiator to anybody that sees it.

The Debt fell two spots to number four, while Columbiana actually moved up a spot in it’s third week to number five, knocking Rise of the Planet of the Apes out of the top five for the first time in it’s six weeks of it’s release. I think it’s safe to say the box office charts isn’t the only thing Columbiana is raising. Am I right guys!!?? High Five? OK, I’ll just move on.

It was a rough weekend for horror, as Shark Night 3D and Apollo 18 fell 58% and 67%, respectively, to land in seventh and eighth. Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark also saw a 57% drop and fell out of the top 10 in just it’s third week.

Our Idiot Brother and Spy Kids: All the Time in the World both star handsome, charming, charismatic men and rounded out the top 10.

The Worst

It’s really in poor taste to drop a bomb on the weekend of 9/11, but that didn’t stop Adam Sandler’s Happy Madison from releasing Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star. I’m sure you’ve seen previews for it, but do you have any idea what it’s about? Probably not, as the previews really seemed to avoid showing any of the movie, and instead had the guy from most of Sandler’s movies talking in a funny voice telling you how funny it is.

Bucky Larson stars Nick Swardson, who I’m a huge fan of, but even I didn’t want to see this movie. It opened at 15 with just under $1.5 million. It opened on 1,500 screens, which isn’t necessarily a huge release, but big enough, especially when you consider that a decent amount of marketing was used.

Let’s break this down a little bit more. It averaged $967 per theater. Over three days. That’s $322 a day. That’s roughly eight people per showing. Warrior wasn’t a much wider release, as it was on less than 400 more screens, and it tripled those numbers per screen. And Warrior was considered a disappointment. What’s that make Bucky Larson?

Let’s go even deeper. Kevin Hart’s concert film, Laugh at My Pain opened at 13 with $2 million. How many screens did it open on? 1,500? Nope. 97! It opened on 97 screens and still pulled in half a million dollars more than Bucky Larson. Granted, that’s quite an impressive feat, and it’s $20.5 thousand per screen is something to be in awe of, but it managed to do that without the marketing push that Bucky Larson had.

The only redeeming thing for Bucky Larson is that Creature also opened in 1,500 theaters this weekend, and it was a failure of historic proportion. It brought in $331,000 dollars for an average of $220 per theater. This makes it the worst opening ever for a movie on at least 1,500 screens. But have you ever even heard of Creature? Yeah, neither has anybody else.

Next Weekend

Next weekend sees four wide releases that are hoping to shake up the top five. Can Ryan Gosling speed up to the top spot with Drive? Can a more direct Dustin Hoffman remake rape it’s way into the top five with Straw Dogs? Sarah Jessica Parker’s due for a bomb with I Don’t Know How She Does It, isn’t she? Is anybody hoping she isn’t? Does anybody care about the Lion King 3D? We’ll see!

Dave Biscella is a dude who loves writing, movies and tacos. He co-created, co-wrote and co-stars in the internet sitcom Juggalohio, which can be found at www.Juggalohio.com.