Box Office Update: "Steel" knocks out Clooney's "Ides"

Here we are, and exactly as was expected heading into this weekend. "Real Steel" won the end game, though not in an absolute runaway victory. Sure, it made a strong Columbus Day weekend opening, but how will it hold up in coming weeks? Well, actually quite well. Oddly enough, audiences get a real hard on for giant robot fighting movies. "The Ides of March", on the other hand, didn't fare so well. True, Clooney's dramas have never made huge bangs of openings. Still, this was a bit on the weaker side of that spectrum. Other than that, not much doing this weekend. Prosperous, though just 3.3% higher than last year when "Life As We Know It" and "Secretariat" failed to beat "The Social Network".

1. "Real Steel" (First Weekend; $27.3 million)

2. "The Ides of March" (First Weekend; $10.4 million)

3. "Dolphin Tale" (Third Weekend; $9.2 million)

4. "Moneyball" (Third Weekend; $7.5 million)

5. "50/50" (Second Weekend; $5.5 million)

6. "Courageous" (Second Weekend; $4.6 million)

7. "Lion King 3D" (Fourth Weekend; $4.5 million)

8. "Dream House" (Second Weekend; $4.4 million)

9. "What's Your Number" (Second Weekend; $3 million)

10. "Abduction" (Third Weekend; $2.9 million)

Box Office Update: "50/50" plays similarly as title

Weekends such as these are the most tedious to write about, not because it's a necessarily bad weekend for the box office. On the contrary, things were slightly up from last year, when "The Social Network" was the sole big winner. What I find so difficult about it is the low-key nature of the proceedings. With four new releases, one would expect at least one of them to be a hit. Unfortunately, they worked more to cancel each other out, each landing below the $10 million mark. It's great that "50/50" was the highest grossing new attraction, but it still deserved much more than it got.

I can't say that I wished better for "Dream House" or "What's My Number?", the latter of which hit the lowest of the new releases, as I'm very happy to report. "Courageous", on the other hand, I've never really heard of in my life, yet it had the highest per theater average of the (sort of) wide releases. Not at all sure why. The three films that won the weekend were repeats from past weekends. "Moneyball" and "Dolphin Tale" switched up places, but bumped up from #'s 2 and 3 to #'s 1 and 2. "The Lion King 3D" took a fall of nearly 50%, and fell to third. "Take Shelter" picked up $56,000 from three theaters, so that's clearly playing somewhat positively with audiences.

Box Office Update: Crowded at the Front

I very nearly let this slide, as my Sunday afternoon schedule is quite hazily packed. I have two reviews from yesterday still in the works, not to mention my work outside of this site. It's severely frustrating, so forgive me for not having much enthusiasm vested in the workings of a typical box office weekend. True, this weekend was a fond improvement from last, with three films hitting just above the $20 million mark. All of them opened to fine reviews, and I only expressed interest enough to see one of them, and barely at that. "The Lion King 3D" was not that film, and this being its last week in theaters, I won't be able to check the film out at all as things are currently.

The film still, appropriately, played well this weekend, falling slightly as audiences tried to rake in the film's last winnings while they still could. Falling just barely behind it was "Moneyball", which I gave a slight pass to on Friday. Just on its tail, pun most definitely not intended, was "Dolphin Tale", which somehow found and audience in young children. Who could have guessed that? "Abduction" and "Killer Elite" were a good $10 million down from their newer competitors, but they still managed to fill out the top five. "The Help" fell slightly. "Contagion" fell slightly more. "Drive" fell even more, sadly. We can't account for taste in this particular market, but it was up nearly 20% from last year.

1. "The Lion King 3D" (Second Weekend; $22.1 million)

2. "Moneyball" (First Weekend; $20.6 million)

3. "Dolphin Tale" (First Weekend; $20.3 million)

4. "Abduction" (First Weekend; $11.2 million)

5. "Killer Elite" (First Weekend; $9.5 million)

6. "Contagion" (Third Weekend; $8.6 million)

7. "Drive" (Second Weekend; $5.8 million)

8. "The Help" (Seventh Weekend; $4.4 million)

9. "Straw Dogs" (Second Weekend; $2.1 million)

10. "I Don't Know How She Does It" (Second Weekend; $2 million)

Films to see in 2011: September

I was rather disappointed to have nothing to recommend out of the August slate. Both "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" and "The Help" were better than I expected, and I suppose "My Idiot Brother" looks delightful enough. I guess if you still haven't seen anything from August, those are the three I'd suggest. However, now we're on to September, which has burgeoned into an amazingly successful slate in the past few years. Last year we were supplied with both "Easy A" and "The Town", and I think I remember liking "The American" more than the critics did. It didn't quite deserve the bashing it got.

As for this year, successful films seem to be much more widespread. It's not going to be all shelled out in one weekend, which I really do prefer it that way. Things start out in a really obligatory pattern, and I'm not sure why September usually kicks off with below-standard horror flicks. Do not expect me to spend any time or effort on "Shark Night 3D" or "Apollo 18", and I won't expect you to either. I saw a trailer for "Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star" in theaters, and I wanted to run as far away from that place as I could. It didn't put me in the right mood for "Bad Teacher" either. Or maybe it did. I'm not sure.

Things do pick up from there, although I still have no intention towards "Warrior", one way or another. It looks like they're milking the formula once again. I don't consign to Sarah Jessica Parker, nor do I consign to her latest film "I Don't Know How She Does It". "Straw Dogs" seems like your typical remake. "Abduction", "Dolphin Tale", "Killer Elite", and "What's Your Number?" all look dreadful. "Dream House" might be an interesting popcorn horror film, but not more than that. And "Moneyball" looks somewhat uninspired, and actually kind of boring. If you think I skipped a few films, you might want to continue to my top three films for this month, after the jump.