Weekend box office: Hotel Transylvania and Looper do well for Sony
It’s probably a good day to be an executive at Sony Pictures today. Their films finished in first and second place at the weekend box office and both of them did surprisingly well. First up, Adam Sandler’s 3D animated film HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA looks like it will beat the all time September box office opening by a wide margin. The previous record holder was Reese Witherspoon’s SWEET HOME ALABAMA, which opened with $35.6 million. HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA should beat that by a few million. Of course, Alabama didn’t have the inflated ticket prices or the 3D premium, but I guess a record is still a record. If that wasn’t enough, the Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Bruce Willis science fiction film LOOPER might push up against the $20 million mark, which is pretty impressive considering the genre and the release date. As surprising as those results are, perhaps the most surprising performance is from PITCH PERFECT, which will crack the top ten despite its limited release. People love it when young people sing for no reason.
Next week sees the return of Liam Neeson in TAKEN 2. Early October seems like an odd time to release the TAKEN sequel, but the first one was a big success and it looks like the second one will stay true to form. We also get Tim Burton’s latest, FRANKENWEENIE, which will be interesting to see how it fares against HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA since they cater to the same demographic. My guess is that TAKEN 2 will finish in the top spot. Note: the numbers below will be updated as they become final.
1. Hotel Transylvania $43m
2. Looper $21.3m
3. End of Watch $7.8m
4. Trouble With The Curve $7.6m
5. House at the end of the Street $7.3m
6. Pitch Perfect $5.2m
7. Finding Nemo 3D $3.9m
8. Resident Evil: Retribution $3m
9. The Master $2.7m
10. Won’t Back Down $2.6m
(Deadline)
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