Weekend Box-Office: November 4-6, 2011

Everyone wants more Puss!

It looks like the crazy weather really did keep many of the nation’s kids inside last weekend. Either that or they were occupied with early Halloween parties, but whatever the case, they flocked to see PUSS IN BOOTS this weekend. In his second week, the suave Spanish feline made $33 million, nearly as much as the $34M opening last weekend — a heroic feat that’s almost unheard of these days.

That CG cat stole the thunder from the ambitious burglars of TOWER HEIST, who could only pocket $25 million from audiences during their debut. The comedy was expected to top the charts with at least $30 million, but ended up with a surprisingly light haul for a mainstream PG-13 movie with Ben Stiller and Eddie Murphy headlining.

Which leads us to ponder: what went wrong? Was I close in speculating in Friday’s Box Office Predictions that people could be suffering from Occupy Wall Street exhaustion? Or was it just that the trailers didn’t make the movie seem particularly funny? Have Eddie Murphy’s older fans completely lost interest in him? Or do they only want to see him return to R-rated material? It should be interesting to see the reactions to him hosting the Oscars in February, especially without a recent hit under his belt.

Seems like it was too soon for a Christmas gift, regardless of whether it contained pot, profanity and/or boobs — A VERY HAROLD & KUMAR CHRISTMAS 3D toked up just over $13 million in its opening weekend, less than HAROLD & KUMAR ESCAPE FROM GUANTANAMO BAY’s $14M opening three years ago. But even with the 3D, the movie supposedly cost around $20 million to make, and will undoubtedly find an audience when it hits home release, where it can be appreciated with the appropriate “medicinal” application.

Things were pretty mellow in the rest of the top 10, with PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 3 surpassing the total take of PA2 and the remaining movies dividing tiny slices of the pie. Paul WS Anderson’s big-budget 3D version of THE THREE MUSKETEERS disappeared off the chart (though it’s made over $100M internationally), as did the low-budget drama COURAGEOUS (which has made around $30M off a reported $2M production cost).

Next weekend (hey, it’s 11-11-11) delivers two Adam Sandlers (one in repugnant female form) in JACK AND JILL, while the action-fantasy IMMORTALS arrives with the exaggerated style of director Tarsem Singh, and future Superman Henry Cavill in his first big starring role before MAN OF STEEL. And Clint Eastwood’s J. EDGAR with Leonardo DiCaprio hits a few theaters on Wednesday before a wide opening on Friday. Many Americans also have Friday off for Veterans Day, which could help the overall box office. Do you plan on hitting the theater to see anything? VOTE HERE!