1. Hotel Transylvania- $43M
Whoa! It's not often you see a studio step out an have two major released on the same weekend, but Sony did and won big. I'm not sure what anyone expected out of Hotel Transylvania, especially after middling critical response, but the animated film opened with the highest September debut in history(!!!). Funny to see the film do so well since the lead voices of Adam Sandler and Andy Samberg stunk up the joint just a couple of months ago with That's My Boy, but obviously nobody cares about that. I'd like to say that this will help people forget what a joke Sandler's career has become, but honestly the only people who will remember he was a part of this will be movie geeks.
2. Looper- $21.2M
Finally Rian Johnson gets the box office hit he has so long deserved. Certainly he had quite a bit of help with Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Bruce Willis starring, but considering both of those guys recently led a pair of flops(Premium Rush, The Cold Light of Day), they can't take all of the credit. No, the film succeeded partially because of the two familiar faces(or one considering Levitt's make-up), a smart marketing campaign that avoided the loopy time travel stuff and emphasized the action. Hopefully this shows studios that you can still make smart, original genre films as long as you have the right people making them.
3. End of Watch- $8M/$26.1M
As predicted last week, David Ayer's cop thriller emerged as the film with the strongest legs in its second weekend. In fact, it's doing well enough now that we may need to start looking at some Oscar love coming its way.
4. Trouble with the Curve- $7.5M/$23.7M
5. House at the End of the Street- $7.15M/$22.2M
6. Pitch Perfect- $5.2M
This week's most surprising debut? Pitch Perfect, which opened in only 335 theaters for a whopping $15k per. That's an amazing start that bodes well for Anna Kendrick and the rest of the vocalizing crew when the film goes wide next week.
7. Finding Nemo 3D- $7M/$36.5M
8. Resident Evil: Retribution- $3M/$38.7M
9. The Master- $2.7M/$9.6M
10. Won't Back Down- $2.7M
Fox made a run at getting this one-sided school drama some marketing love, but Viola Davis and Maggie Gyllenhaal aren't going to put butts in seats no matter what the subject. Don't get me wrong, both are great actresses and deserve all the accolades in the world, but they can't make a corny film like this look appealing, and that's where the problem lies.
