The weekend following Labor Day is usually one of the slowest weekends of the year for the box office and this past weekend kept that tradition going. One stand-out, Contagion, easily infected the number one spot with an estimated $23.1 million in it’s opening weekend. Contagion, which stars Matt Damon, Kate Winslet, Lawrence Fishburne, Jude Law and Gwyneth Paltrow tells the tale of a deadly, fast-spreading virus that quickly becomes a pandemic. Germaphobes, take plenty of hand sanitizer with you if you plan to see this one.
Guess what movie took second place? It’s The Help! This movie has now earned $137.1 million and has become the 14th highest grossing movie of the year. The Fighter, Fighting, The Wrestler Warrior premiered in third place with an estimated $5.6 million and the thriller, The Debt dropped off 51% from the previous weekend with an estimated $4.9 million. Columbiana took the fifth place spot with an estimated $4 million.
Two new movies that premiered this weekend set box office records unfortunately, they aren’t the type of records that anyone in Hollywood wants to aim for. Bucky Larson: Born to be a Star and Creature had two of the worst opening grosses ever. Bucky, which took in $1.45 million looked like a blockbuster compared to Creature’s $331,000, which was the fifth lowest-grossing opening ever for a nationwide release and averaged 6 people per showing. Yikes!
Here is the top 10 for the weekend of September 9 – 11, 2011:
1. Contagion (WB, $23,135,000)
2. The Help (BV, $8,691,000)
3. Warrior (LGF, $5,607,000)
4. The Debt (Focus, $4,905,000)
5. Colombiana (TriS, $4,000,000)
6. Rise of the Planet of the Apes (Fox, $3,875,000)
7. Shark Night 3D (Rela., $3,533,000)
8. Apollo 18 (Weinstein Co./Dim., $2,913,000)
9. Our Idiot Brother (Weinstein Co.,$2,761,000)
10. Spy Kids: All the Time in the World (Weinstein Co./Dim., $2,506,000)