Moviegoers opted for pre-Halloween scares this Labor Day weekend. Rob Zombie’s prequel-remake of the 1978 John Carpenter classic opened at No. 1 at the North American box office with a four-day total of $31 million.
The re-imagined Halloween now stands as the best Labor Day weekend opener ever, surpassing record holder Transporter 2, which debuted in 2005 with $20.1 million. Halloween’s impressive numbers also helped to push the overall summer totals to over $4 billion.
“Halloween was far beyond anything we’ve seen on Labor Day,” Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Media By Numbers told The Associated Press. “It was just a perfect ending to a perfect summer. Hopefully, we can do this every year.”
The comedy Balls of Fury, about a washed-up pingpong player recruited by the feds to help bring down a criminal mastermind (Christopher Walken), opened in third place with a four-day total of $14.3 million, while the crime drama Death Sentence, starring Kevin Bacon, debuted at No. 8 with $5.2 million.
The Top 12 movies took in a four-day total of $120 million, up 21.68 percent from last year’s total of $98.6 million and up 9.24 percent from last weekend’s total of $88.8 million.
The Top Three films at the box office this time last year: Buena Vista’s Invincible, which stayed at No. 1 in its second week with $15.1 million in 2,921 theaters, averaging $5,282 per theater; Lionsgate’s Crank, which opened in second place with $12.8 million in 2,515 theaters, averaging $5,128 per theater; and Warner Bros.’ The Wicker Man, which debuted in third with $11.7 million in 2,784 theaters, averaging $4,217 per theater (Click here to read last year’s box office report).
BOX OFFICE TOP 10 ESTIMATES (Four-Day Totals)
(Source: Exhibitor Relations, Inc.)
No. 1: Halloween (MGM, R)
• Gross: $31 million
• Weeks opened: NEW!
• Theaters: 3,472
• Per-theater average: $8,932
No. 2: Superbad (Sony, R)
• Gross: $15.6 million (-31%)
• Weeks opened: 3
• Theaters: 3,002 (+54)
• Per-theater average: $5,197
• Cume to date: $92.4 million
No. 3: Balls of Fury (Rogue/Focus, PG-13)
• Gross: $14.3 million
• Weeks opened: NEW!
• Theaters: 3,052
• Per-theater average: $4,688
No. 4: The Bourne Supremacy (Universal, PG-13)
• Gross: $13.1 million (-17%)
• Weeks opened: 5
• Theaters: 3,290 (-389)
• Per-theater average: $4,010
• Cume to date: $202.6 million
No. 5: Rush Hour 3 (New Line, PG-13)
• Gross: $10.3 million (-28%)
• Weeks opened: 4
• Theaters: 3,008 (-400)
• Per-theater average: $3,449
• Cume to date: $122.2 million
No. 6: Mr. Bean’s Holiday (Universal, G)
• Gross: $8.1 million (-39%)
• Weeks opened: 2
• Theaters: 1,765 (+51)
• Per-theater average: $4,590
• Cume to date: $21.1 million
No. 7: The Nanny Diaries (MGM, PG-13)
• Gross: $6.3 million (-32%)
• Weeks opened: 2
• Theaters: 2,636 (+7)
• Per-theater average: $2,411
• Cume to date: $16.5 million
No. 8: Death Sentence (20th Century Fox, R)
• Gross: $5.2 million
• Weeks opened: NEW!
• Theaters: 1,822
• Per-theater average: $2,854
No. 9: War (Lionsgate, R)
• Gross: $5.1 million (-58%)
• Weeks opened: 2
• Theaters: 2,277 (unchanged)
• Per-theater average: $2,257
• Cume to date: $17.9 million
No. 10: Stardust (Paramount, PG-13)
• Gross: $3.9 million (-20%)
• Weeks opened: 4
• Theaters: 1,766 (-573)
• Per-theater average: $2,210
• Cume to date: $31.9 million
OTHER OPENINGS
Ladron Que Roba a Ladron (Lionsgate, PG-13)
• Gross: $2 million
• Weeks opened: NEW!
• Theaters: 340
• Per-theater average: $6,000
The Nines (Newmarket, R)
• Gross: $23,617
• Weeks opened: NEW!
• Theaters: 2
• Per-theater average: $14,309
