Weekend Box Office: Viewers Log On, Join 'The Social Network'

Reports peg “The Social Network” costing Sony $40-$60 million, which means this number one opening should be more than solid. But then you have to consider prints and advertising - a movie about angry nerds staring at computer screens and occasionally yelling at each other with maximum verbosity doesn’t sell itself. The picture might count as “relevant” and “important” but with a likely costly Oscar campaign coming, Sony’s going to pray this has enough legs to get to $100 million and not settle for $60m. In Facebook terms, this isn’t an Eduardo Saverin opening, but it is a Mark Zuckerberg opening. Sony was probably banking on a Sean Parker-type weekend.

The numbers suggest the film did extremely well on the coasts and weak in the Midwest, South, and various flyover regions*. There could be the nugget of a possibility that “The Social Network” is something more cerebral, even esoteric. Perhaps it’s the notion that this is a story where no one is really worth rooting for, and at heart, the film explores the complexities of truly godless individuals. Or maybe it’s the very real possibility that “Network” was snobbishly pushed harder on the coasts, while the rest of the nation was left to tune out from this movie about people tapping on their keyboards to create a waste of time website that serves no real, practical purpose. Let us not forget that sometimes, being a “good” movie isn’t enough of a hook for some viewers.
Conventional wisdom says that kiddie flicks have legs, even when they aren’t heavily attended, and “Legend of the Guardians” won't buck that trend. Still, this thing has flop written all over it, whether it’s a $100 or $150 million expenditure, even if it was a Legendary Films/Warner Bros. co-production, and even if they paid the voice cast in trinkets and tchotchkes. Even though there's no relation between the projects, WB didn't gain any promotional traction by pushing this film a week after their own Ben Affleck bank robbing caper, something most studios usually know to avoid. It looked more nature-film than action picture, and those early ads, with laughably terrible guitar rock over the cuddly CGI images, probably turned off parents hoping they could take their kids to something a bit less somber-looking.

“Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps” had a hearty fall from its perch, losing about half its audience. An expected fall for this type of film, this sequel is still projected to perform right at expectations, landing at $50-$60 million easily. You could have argued that all parties involved needed this to be bigger, but that case is dubious now - failing to become a zeitgeist grabber and, likely, an awards contender keeps Shia LeBeouf in the Brand Name sweepstakes, but not in the Real Actor department. And Oliver Stone likely buys himself some time and a chance to be director-for-hire yet again despite a serious declining Q rating based on diminished skill and reliance on hefty budgets. Of course, this sadly might be the last time we see Michael Douglas strutting his stuff on the big screen, and for a former box office lion like him, that likely carries weight for the people who have added to “Wall Street 2” tallies.

At the WB, they reward success not with fruit baskets or gift certificates but with a chance to helm “Superman.” However, all reports suggest Ben Affleck would rather have the fruit basket, free massage and chaise longue that come with the success for “The Town,” which held remarkably well in week three and looks poised to challenge $90 million domestic. A movie that makes $100 million in the September-October time period has a serious effect on your cred, but it’s oodles better if the film has legs and benefits from what appears to be word-of-mouth. “The Social Network” and “Wall Street” may have topped the box office recently, but “The Town” still carries a lot of “I’ve gotta see that” heat from the general public.

“Easy A” continues to stick around, a stellar hold getting the film over the likely $40 million domestic target, with more ground to cover. $60 million isn’t out of the question, a number that can turn a bit player into a star. Emma Stone, this is your moment: don’t work with CGI owls. Screen Gems had a rocking summer, and with this sub-$10 million film generating significant theatrical profit (providing p&a wasn’t out of control - always a possibility), all parties involved could pull in serious dough by association. More than likely, director Will Gluck has now atoned in the eyes of studios for “Fired Up,” one of last year’s biggest flops.

When a film sits on the shelf for more than a couple of years, it’s a terrible sign for everyone. But Paramount knows when God gives you lemons, you make applesauce, and was able to get Paramount Vantage's leftover “Case 39” into a couple thousand theaters years after that boutique label closed. Most studios would treat a film like this as radioactive and it would go straight-to-DVD, but Paramount rolled the dice on a likely cheap ad campaign (and no press screenings) and will get the film to a potential $15 million gross. Overture have to be smarting that “Let Me In” was taken out by the knees partly because the horror dollar was being squeezed by not only “Case 39” and “Devil” but also “Hatchet II” and “Chain Letter.” The last two were quiet indie releases though, so Paramount, who could have shat out “Case 39” on any weekend to similar results, comes out looking like a dick. Viewers, meanwhile, had to be confused by the fact that Bradley Cooper no longer looked so buff and Renee Zellweger didn’t resemble a Shoggoth.

We don’t wish to hate on this decision, but what kind of Tranya does one have to sip to think that they would make serious money by remaking “Let The Right One In”? Overture somehow saw dollar signs in remaking a “beloved” recent horror classic that made $2 million domestically on the art house circuit, imagining they got brownie points for staying close to the source material. “Let Me In” is as alienating as major releases get, a dark, snowy, somber adult film starring kids and ostensibly featuring horrific violence. “Let Me In” had no recognizable faces, a hard-R rating and ads that (appropriately?) showcased vampirism as a disease, when audiences have already declared that they prefer their vamps with guns (“Underworld”), smoking hot (“Twilight”) and generally sans real tragedy. No matter how strong Matt Reeves’ vision for this remake was (and it's an excellent effort), it was DOA as soon as it was announced, and most of us are just stunned they got it into 2000 theaters. Of course, more people will have seen “Let Me In” than “Let The Right One In” by the time the dust settles, but this material just isn’t for everyone. Which is our condescending way of saying that lots of people have terrible taste.

In indie theaters, "Catfish" and "Waiting For Superman" remained the top attractions, with "Catfish" expanding to the tune of $607k on 34 screens and the Davis Guggenheim doc pulling in $407k with the week's best per-screen average ($11k per). While "Catfish" isn't showing the kind of breakout potential people expected, "Superman" could play pretty strongly if this expansion is managed the right way, and potentially it could be a rarity, the $1 million doc. "It Might Get Loud" and "An Inconvenient Truth," Guggenheim's previous, crossed that barrier with ease (particularly the latter), but "Superman" is a noticeably tougher sell. Still, the impetus behind a film like this is, as long as one person sees it, it has made a difference. Also, the people who made "Waiting For Superman" are already millionaires.

In a crowded indie marketplace, Woody Allen's "You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger" averaged $8k per-screen, with $232k on 29 screens. "Get Low" continues to bring in audiences, bringing its total to $8.6 million with a strong $204k in its tenth weekend, while super-doc "Freakanomics" barely made a dent with $33k on seventeen screens. The big loser for this weekend? The horror genre. In addition to "Case 39" and "Let Me In" bellyflopping, two smaller releases had debuts on the frail end of the spectrum. "Hatchet II" pulled in only $62k on 68 screens, while "Chain Letter" was one of the year's biggest tanks at 406 venues, pulling in $143k, a meager average of $352 per-screen. Pass this on - support your local indie theaters, folks.

1. The Friendster Lounge (Sony) - $23 million
2. Legend Of The Guardians: Owly! (WB) - $10.9 million ($30 mil.)
3. Wall Street: Money Takes A Knee (Fox) - $10.1 million ($36 mil.)
4. The Town (WB) - $10 million ($64 mil.)
5. Easy A (Sony) - $7 million ($42 mil.)
6. You Again (Disney) - $5.6 million ($16 mil.)
7. Case 39 (Paramount) - $5.4 million
8. Let Me In (Overture) - $5.3 million
9. Devil (Universal) - $3.7 million ($28 mil.)
10. Alpha And Omega - $3 million ($19 mil.)

*Bear with us; Hollywood considers anything that isn’t New York, Los Angeles, or Chicago “flyover regions.”