May 26, 2012

Contagion Infects the Box Office

by Rebecca Pahle | Published September 12, 2011

After three weeks of being top dog at the box office, The Help (weekend gross $8.6 million, total gross $137 million) was finally pushed out of the number one spot by Steven Soderbergh’s Contagion, which earned $23.1 million in its first weekend. New release Warrior came in third with an opening weekend gross of $5.6 million, and last weekend’s runner-up The Debt (weekend gross $4.9 million, total gross $21.9 million) fell to number four. Rounding out the top five was Colombiana; its weekend gross of $4 million brings its total so far to $29.7 million.

Also out in wide release last weekend was Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star, starring Nick Swardson, Christina Ricci and Don Johnson. The film earned only $1.4 million in 1,500 theaters, giving it a per-theater average of $967. By comparison, new release Kevin Hart: Laugh at My Pain grossed $2 million at only 98 theaters, giving in a per-theater average of over 20 times that of Bucky Larson. Ouch.

Also out last weekend were Creature ($331,000) and The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975 ($19,400).

Out next weekend in wide release are Straw Dogs, Drive and I Don’t Know How She Does It. New limited releases include Restless, Stay Cool, 3, Connected: An Autoblogography About Love, Death & Technology, Granito: How to Nail a Dictator, The Mill and the Cross, Jane’s Journey, My Afternoons with Margueritte, Happy Happy and The Weird World of Blowfly.