Burn After Reading debuted at $12 million more than last week’s #1 one film.
Ethan and Joel Coen’s dark comedy “Burn After Reading” led a vibrant fall bloom at the domestic box office, debuting to an estimated $19.4 million from 2,651 theaters to give the siblings and Focus Features their biggest opening gross ever.
What a difference a week can make. The fall box office got off to its rockiest start in years over the Sept. 5-7 frame, but this weekend’s performance restored the luster that dominated much of the summer box office.
In a surprise show of strength, “Burn” and the three other new wide releases — Lionsgate’s “Tyler Perry’s The Family That Preys,” Overture’s “Righteous Kill” and Picturehouse’s “The Women” — generally performed at the upper end of expectations despite the crowded marketplace for adult-skewing films. Overall B.O. revs of roughly $100 million mark only the second time in time in history that a non-Labor Day weekend in September has seen that sort of gross.
“Family That Preys” came in second behind “Burn.” Dramedy grossed an estimated $18 million from 2,070 runs and played largely to an African-American aud.
In the first major success for Overture Films, Jon Avnet’s Al Pacino-Robert De Niro cop drama “Righteous Kill” grossed an estimated $16.5 million from 3,152 screens to place No. 3. “Righteous” and “Burn” were rated R.
The top 12 movies at U.S. and Canadian theatres Friday through Sunday, as estimated by Media By Numbers LLC. Final figures will be released Monday.
1. “Burn After Reading,” $19.4 million.
2. “Tyler Perry’s The Family that Preys,” $18.0 million.
3. “Righteous Kill,” $16.5 million.
4. “The Women,” $10.1 million.
5. “The House Bunny,” $4.3 million.
6. “Tropic Thunder,” $4.2 million.
7. “The Dark Knight,” $4.0 million.
8. “Bangkok Dangerous,” $2.4 million.
9. “Traitor,” $2.1 million.
10. “Death Race,” $2.0 million.
11. “Babylon A.D.,” $1.7 million.
12. “Mamma Mia!,” $1.7 million.
[Credit: Variety / Media By Numbers]
I would rather have 3-5megs down on AT&T but that’s only because I live and work in two or three areas that both have brand new 3g networks (as in less than a year and a half old). I do understand the appeal of the Verizon network for some people though. If I spent more time in the northern part of my state (aka the boonies) I would definitely consider switching to Verizon. I would rather have 1 meg 90% of the time than 3 megs 20% of the time and .02 megs 80% of the time. Fortunately for my specific usage AT&T is fantastic for me. I have really fast 3g about 75% of the time and I’ll take that over Verizon’s network. Not to mention in smaller markets Verizon’s 3g is awful, there are times when my friend can’t even pull in a 3g connection on his incredible… even though I’ll have 2 bars and 3 megs down.