In a hotly contested weekend race, the political comedy Burn After Reading emerged as the box office leader with an estimated $19.2 million. Two other debuting titles were right behind with Tyler Perry’s relative drama The Family That Preys grossing $18 million and the DeNiro-Pacino cop meller Righteous Kill posting a $16.4 million box office. The session’s fourth freshman – an update of 1939’s The Women – had to settle with leftovers of $10.8 million.

The weekend was also crowded with regional and exclusive bows including near moribund results for the non-fiction Proud Americans of $103,000 in 750 theaters. Best of the limited openers was the darkly comic Towelhead that grossed $54,100 at four sites with an OK return of $17,700 for the doc Flow for start up distributor Oscilloscope. Other debuts including Greetings from the Shoreand Tired of Kissing Frogs appeared on the fast track to DVD and VOD.

Following last weekend’s movie going burn out attendance rallied, bolstered by the flow of seasonal product. Still, one could see sharp declines for the summer holdovers with the most profound drop of 70% experienced by last weekend’s leader Bangkok Dangerous.

The Coen Brothers Oscar follow up Burn After Reading wasn’t expected to top the charts and with critical response generally tilting to the negative its supremacy was all the more surprising. It wound up being the siblings best ever opener and edged ahead of the crowd as a result of wider general appeal than the competition.

The latest Afrocentric mix of comedy and angst from Perry – The Family That Preys – that was expected to lead the frame opened with comparable strength but not quite the $20 million that was being tracked. Similarly the older aud appeal of Righteous Kill played to anticipated business. ButThe Women came up short and pundits were at a loss to explain why the cast and subject matter didn’t translate to the fall equivalent of Sex and the City or Mamma Mia! And there’s not any talk of the possibility of a second act for this second act.

Weekend revenues bounced back to roughly $100 million for a sizeable 54% improvement from last weekend. It was also 33% better than the 2007 session when the bow of The Brave One led with $13.4 million; 3:10 to Yuma held well with $8.9 million and the freshman Mr. Woodcock followed with $8.8 million.

Holdover movies largely took it on the chin with erosion rates ranging from 40% to 60%. The only niche that bucked the trend was family fare and especially the 3D engagements of Fly Me to the Moon and Journey to the Center of the Earth.

While there’s little question that the industry wants to push on from the prevailing doldrums of late summer, it’s atypical that audiences should be in lock step. Neither mainstream nor niche movies that caught the last part of the seasonal wave seem likely to have much of a presence by month’s end.

It’s not surprising that anxiety levels have ramped up as the release schedule through Thanksgiving offers little with definitive commercial appeal. Summer box office just scraped by and the prospect of significant drops in attendance through the end of the year would inject a significant psychological shakeup; particularly among theater owners.

– Leonard Klady

Domestic Market Share – To September 11, 2008

Top Domestic Releases – To September 11, 2008

Be Sociable, Share!

• 
•