Weekend Box-Office: September 9-11, 2011

Everybody
loves a virus movie!!

The entire weekend as a whole,
was extremely disappointing for Hollywood as it turned out to be
the lowest grossing weekend of 2011 so far. That in itself
isn’t a major surprise since the end of August/early September is
known to be the “dump weeks” for crappy studio movies,
but Steven Soderbergh’s CONTAGION didn’t seem to fit that bill and
audiences agreed as the film beat most expectations to open in 1st
place with $23M, while at the same time, finally knocking THE HELP
from the top spot after 3 consecutive weeks at the helm.

The best-reviewed
film of the weekend, WARRIOR, didn’t fare as well with only
$6M in its debut but as part of the lowest weekend gross of the
year, it did manage a 3rd place showing. The folks behind the film
are confident that the movie will “have legs” and stick
around the top ten for weeks to come, but we’ll have to wait and
see about that. The good news about the other new release of the
week, the horribly-reviewed BUCKY LARSON (it literally has 0%
rating on Rotten Tomatoes), was that audiences didn’t buy into
Adam Sandler’s “shtick” anymore as the film made only
$1.5M with an 11th place opening. Stop counting your millions
dude, and make sure you actually read the screenplays
you’re putting your name on…this is getting embarrassing now.

No major surprises in the rest
of the top 10, as APOLLO 18 lost the greatest amount of its
audience from last weekend (66%) while THE HELP lost the least
(40%). THE HELP has grossed $137M since it was released five weeks
ago. The 2 films to get knocked out of the top 10 this weekend
included DON’T BE AFRAID OF THE DARK ($21M) and THE SMURFS
($136M). It’s interesting to note that THE SMURFS have grossed an
additional $312M overseas which brings their worldwide total to
$457M, which ain’t too shabby.

RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES
also moved into 10th place for the summer movies (which also turns
into the top 10 for the entire 2011), surpassing KUNG FU PANDA 2
which now sits in 11th place with $165M. Below is the top 15 from
this summer’s movies…

1. HARRY POTTER… – $377M
2. TRANSFORMERS 3 – $350M
3. THE HANGOVER 2 – $254M
4. PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN 4 – $241M
5. FAST FIVE – $210M
6. CARS 2 – $189M
7. THOR – $181M
8. CAPTAIN AMERICA – $173M
9. BRIDESMAIDS – $169M
10. RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES – $168M
11. KUNG FU PANDA 2 – $165M
12. X-MEN: FIRST CLASS – $146M
13. THE HELP – $137M
14. THE SMURFS – $136M
15. SUPER 8 – $127M

Next weekend sees the release
of 3 new films including the remake of the Dustin Hoffman thriller
entitled STRAW
DOGS starring Lois Lane and Cyclops, the highly-touted DRIVE
starring Ryan Gosling and directed by the man behind BRONSON,
as well as a chick flick starring Sarah Jessica Parker called I
DON’T KNOW HOW SHE DOES IT (also co-stars Pierce Brosnan,
Christina Hendricks, Olivia Munn, Kelsey Grammer, Seth Meyers,
Greg Kinnear, Jane Curtin and Jessica Szohr). BTW, our very own
Chris Bumbray already saw DRIVE and thought it kicked major ass
(read his review HERE).
So which film do you think will finish in the #1 spot next
weekend? VOTE
HERE!!!