Friday Box Office Analysis
By Tim Briody
October 2, 2010
BoxOfficeProphets.com
The Facebook movie earned $8 million on Friday, which is a fine start. The Social Network is an incredibly odd example of a film that's extremely timely but doesn't remind audiences about terrible things like war and how crappy the economy is. Instead, it's...hang on, just a couple more games of Bejeweled Blitz...
Okay, I'm back. Where was I? Oh, right. The [bp:4222_]David Fincher[/bp] directed/[bp:7397_]Aaron Sorkin[/bp] scripted film is hitting on nearly all cylinders with critics and audience response appears positive as well, though I've checked Facebook and Twitter and nobody seems to be mentioning it because apparently that's just way too meta. I'm looking at [tm:4688_]The Town[/tm] for a weekend multiplier comparison, as its something that set itself up as an immediate Oscar contender and had solid reviews and appealed to older audiences. The Town had a 2.85 multiplier on its opening weekend and applying that to The Social Network would mean a weekend of $22.8 million.
[tm:4956_]Let Me In[/tm]
The American adaptation of Let the Right One In, Let Me In is a surprising flop, earning $1.9 million this weekend. I can't figure out why audiences would ignore this one and then go and make [tm:4744_]Devil[/tm] from a couple of weeks ago open to $12.2 million. There's a possibility this becomes a cult hit on DVD, but $5.1 million is probably the best it can do at the box office this weekend.
[tm:3434_]Case 39[/tm]
Throwing under Let Me In, Case 39 earned $1.8 million on Friday. This is probably a less of a disappointment than Let Me In, as Case 39 had an overseas release several months ago and was just kind of being thrown out there to earn a few more bucks. It probably kneecapped Let Me In to a small degree, which is unfortunate. Give it $4.5 million for the weekend.
Notable Holdovers
Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps drops 53% from last Friday to $3.3 million. That could've been worse and it should come in at under 50% for the entire weekend, so call it about $9.9 million.
Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole falls 43% from last Friday to $2.6 million. It managed a 3.5 multiplier last weekend, and as the only family option, should repeat that performance this weekend. Look for a second weekend of $9.2 million.