Box Office Takes a Trip Down Wall Street

Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps did Gordon Gekko proud by pulling in the most dough at the box office this past weekend, earning $19 million in its first week. In spot number two came new release Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole, which earned $16.3 million and presumably has a bunch of owls swooping around, not only in 3-D (it’s an animated kid’s movie released in 2010, of course it’s in 3-D), but in slow motion too (seeing as it’s directed by Zack Snyder and all. It’s also based on a popular kid’s book, which is the first in a series, so if this does well you can expect to see the series’ 16th book, Lost Tales of Ga’Hoole in theaters by 2015, hopefully before the 3-D craze wears off). Ben Affleck’s The Town, number one at the box office last weekend, fell to number three, with a weekend gross of $16 million and a total of $49.1 million. Spot number four went to Easy A (weekend gross $10.7 million, total gross $32.8 million), and new release You Again came in at number five, earning $8.3 million.

Other new releases were The Virginity Hit ($300,000), Woody Allen’s newest You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger ($163,474), Davis Guggenheim’s much-buzzed-about Waiting for ‘Superman’ ($141,000), Buried ($104,500) , Like Dandelion Dust ($75,000), Howl ($54,010) and Enter the Void ($41,700).

Out on October 1st are Let Me In (the remake of acclaimed Swedish vampire film Let the Right One In) and The Social Network, a.k.a. “That Facebook Movie That Made You Question The Future of Hollywood, Because Why Would Anyone Make a Movie About the Internet Off All Things, But Now It Looks Like It Might Actually Be Good, What’s Up With That?” (this title’s better, but the graphic designers had some trouble fitting it all on the poster). Out in limited release are Case 39, Barry Munday, Chain Letter (so that’s two movies about the Internet/e-mail being released in one day. Huh.), Cash Crop, Douchebag, Freakonomics, Hatchet II, Ip Man and Partir.