The Weekend Report (3-Day)

It was a horse race for the top of the charts and Lee Daniels’ The Butler emerged as the winner by a nose over anticipated champ One Direction: This is Us with respective grosses of $14.8 million and $14.2 million (all figures reflect 3-day portion of the Labor Day frame). Two additional films made national bows in the last gasp of summer and both proved disappointing. Getaway (no relationship to The Getaway) opened to $4.5 million and the political thriller Closed Circuit trailed the pack with $2.5 million.

Niche titles proved to be far brighter with the Spanish-language comedy Instructions Not Included setting a record of $7.4 million in that groove and the Hindi Satyagraha opening to a solid $383,000 at 82 venues. Exclusive debuts were largely flaccid with the best of the lot being the American indie Afternoon Delight that generated $26,400 from two screens.

The three-day tally topped $120 million with the full holiday session poised to set a record for the period of roughly $160 million.

The concert film with boy band One Direction (This is Us) was tuneful but shy of bravado despite an encouraging Thursday preview of $2.7 million. It hit its target audience but their full force was muted by other distractions like shopping for school togs. Studio exit polls revealed an audience 87% composed of women with 65% aged 17-years and younger.

The session also saw several holdover titles expanding to reach bragging rights levels that are nice little digital box add-ons and Chinese import The Grandmaster reaching out nationally to fair results.

 (summer chart will be posted later in the week)

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