Box office report for Oct. 12, 2009
Benefiting from a dearth of competition, the comedy “Couples Retreat,” which reunited “Swingers” co-stars Vince Vaughn and Jon Favreau, topped the weekend box office with $35.3 million.
Despite poor reviews (it scored only 14 percent at RottenTomatoes.com), ”Couples Retreat,” the directing debut for Peter Billingsley (AKA “Ralphie” of ”A Christmas Story” fame) exceeded expectations for Universal Pictures. According to the Associated Press, the distributor hoped the movie would top the $20 million range.
The No. 1 opening came just days after a management shake-up that followed a summer of poor box office performers for Universal, which released the Will Ferrell dud “Land of the Lost” and such commercial underachievers as Adam Sandler’s “Funny People” and Jennifer Aniston’s “Love Happens.”
The week’s previous No. 1, the horror-comedy “Zombieland,” came in second place with $15 million, raising its take to $47.8 million.
The micro-budgeted fright film “Paranormal Activity” jumped to No. 5 after distributor Paramount expanded into daylong release after two weeks of midnight screenings.
Shot for a reported $15,000, “Paranormal Activity” played in narrow release of just 160 cinemas. It averaged a huge $44,163 a theater, compared with $11,780 in 3,000 theaters for “Couples Retreat.”
“Paranormal Activity” was acquired by former Paramount partner DreamWorks at 2007′s Slamdance Film Festival with the idea that writer-director Oren Peli would re-shoot it on a bigger budget, according to the AP.
But after audiences responded well to a test screening, Paramount decided to sneak “Paranormal Activity” out in a manner befitting its raw, independent roots. The studio began two weekends ago with midnight screenings in 13 cities, the movie building buzz online much as “The Blair Witch Project” did 10 years ago.
Only Paramount has the advantage of social media now: Fans spread the word about the documentary-style horror flick on Twitter and Facebook, and the movie expanded to more cities based on which markets received the most requests to see it on a Web site Paramount set up. According to the AP, the weekend’s 46 markets included mostly big cities, but mid-sized cities such as Norfolk, Va., also made the cut as fans there voted to bring the movie.
According to Paramount, “Paranormal Activity” had a record weekend for a movie playing in fewer than 200 theaters, surpassing the $3.7 million haul for “Platoon” in 174 theaters early in its run in 1987. Factoring in today’s higher prices for movie tickets, which average nearly twice as much as in 1987, “Paranormal Activity” sold about the same number of tickets as “Platoon.”
“Paranormal Activity” has grossed $8.3 million so far. And Paramount plans to expand it to several hundred more theaters this weekend, again adding new markets based on where it gets the most requests.
Here are the weekend’s top 10 movies, from the AP:
1. “Couples Retreat,” $35.3 million.
2. “Zombieland,” $15 million.
3. “Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs,” $12 million.
4. “Toy Story” and “Toy Story 2″ in 3-D, $7.7 million.
5. “Paranormal Activity,” $7.1 million.
6. “Surrogates,” $4.1 million.
7. “The Invention of Lying,” $3.4 million.
8. “Whip It,” $2.8 million.
9. “Capitalism: A Love Story,” $2.7 million.
10. “Fame,” $2.6 million.
-BAM
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