‘Megamind’ leads one of the most star-filled weekends of the year as Brad Pitt, Will Ferrell, Robert Downey, Jr., Denzel Washington, Tina Fey, Rachel McAdams and Harrison Ford do box office battle.
Dreamworks’ animated ‘Megamind’ makes its two in a row with $30 million for the weekend against a small 35% second weekend drop. The all-star animated feature took on Robert Downey Jr. and newcomers Denzel Washington and Harrison Ford to remain on top at the nation’s theatres. The film has earned close to $90 million after just ten days of release.
In the second spot with $23.5 million is Twentieth Century Fox’s action packed train chase drama ‘Unstoppable.’ Denzel Washington and director Tony Scott have joined forces yet again and have collaborated on four other films including the train-themed re-make of ‘The Taking of Pelham 1, 2, 3,’ ‘Deja Vu,’ ‘Man on Fire’ and ‘Crimson Tide.’ Those films had an average opening weekend performance of $21.3 million and given the draw of Chris Pine who portrayed Captain James T. Kirk in J.J. Abrams 2009 hit re-boot of “Star Trek” and Washington’s undeniable appeal, “Unstoppable” performed at a level above the average for the pair.
In its second weekend of release, the Todd Phillips comedy ‘Due Date’ delivered $15.5 million and with a second weekend drop of 52% the film has earned a total gross through Sunday of close to $60 million. The film opened in second place last weekend with a solid $32.7 million but was able to dominate the mid-week box office derby vs. the more family and therefore weekend friendly ‘Megamind.’ For reference, Phillips’ 2009 comedy juggernaut ‘The Hangover’ dropped 27% in its second weekend while on its way to becoming the highest R-rated comedy of all-time.
Check out our exclusive ‘Skyline’ the
med comic strip from Francesco Marciuliano. Francesco writes the internationally-syndicated comic strip “Sally Forth” and the webcomic “Medium Large.” He was the head writer for the PBS series “SeeMore’s Playhouse,” for which one of his episodes won two 2007 Daytime Emmys. He currently writes for the Onion News Network.
The number four spot goes to Universal and Relativity Media’s sci-fi newcomer “Skyline” with $11.7 million. Starring Eric Balfour the special effects-laden film offered fans of the genre some extra-terrestrial fun and therefore performed with an as expected debut.
Rounding out the top five with $9.6 million is the comedy ‘Morning Glory’ from Paramount. Harrison Ford brings his ‘Working Girl’ comedy chops back to the big screen with co-stars Diane Keaton and Rachel McAdams. Roger Michell, who directed 1999’s ‘Notting Hill,’ attracted women, the date crowd and older audiences to this story set around a morning TV news show. With the younger demographic relating to McAdams and older audiences identifying with Ford and Keaton, ‘Morning Glory,’ which opened Wednesday, has a five day total of $12.2 million.
The second weekend of the Holiday Movie Season will mark a milestone with year-to-date revenues crossing the $9 billion mark with seven weeks left in the box office year. The even better news is that one of the biggest films of the year, Warner Bros.’ ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1’ set to open this Friday to an expected massive box-office debut.
Weekend Box Office
Top 10 Movies – Weekend of November 12, 2010 (Estimates)
Movie
Weekend
Total
1
Megamind (PG)
$30.1 M
$89.8 M
2
Unstoppable (PG-13)
$23.5 M
$23.5 M
3
Due Date (R)
$15.5 M
$59.0 M
4
Skyline (PG-13)
$11.7 M
$11.7 M
5
Morning Glory (PG-13)
$9.6 M
$12.2 M
6
For Colored Girls (R)
$6.8 M
$30.9 M
7
RED (PG-13)
$5.1 M
$79.8 M
8
Paranormal Activity 2 (R)
$3.0 M
$82.0 M
9
Saw 3D (R)
$2.8 M
$43.5 M
10
Jackass 3D (R)
$2.3 M
$114.7 M
