Looks like almost everyone who wanted to see HSM3 saw it last weekend. Or else they were busy dressing up as Troy and Gabriella at a costume party. Movie attendance was way down this weekend:
1. High School Musical 3: Senior Year: $15 million (2nd week; drops 64%)
2. Zack and Miri Make a Porno: $10.7 million (NEW)
3. Saw V: $10.1 million (2nd week; drops 66%)
4. Changeling: $9.4 million (1st week in wide release)
5. The Haunting of Molly Hartley: $6 million (NEW)
The Los Angeles Times notes that the weekend was down 37 percent over last year — when American Gangster and Bee Movie, in the No. 1 and No. 2 spots, respectively, brought in a combined $80 million-plus — and that Friday’s ticket sales were particularly dire, what with Halloween falling on that day. I’d bet that Saturday, too, was far off a regular Saturday’s attendance — I’m sure I wasn’t the only person at a Halloween party on Saturday night, instead of at the movies.
It might have been only the holiday that prevented Kevin Smith from getting his best opening-weekend numbers ever: Zack and Miri opened just a smidge behind Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, which debuted to the tune of a little over $11 million in 2001.
The healtiest numbers for the weekend, as usual, came among the limited releases. Star-director Bruce Campbell’s horror comedy My Name Is Bruce (my review ASAP) collected $18,800 on a single screen. I was near that single screen on Friday night: it’s in the East Village in New York, and the neighborhood was a crazy Mardi Gras-esque scene — I can well imagine that the way to top off such an evening would be with a midnight showing of Bruce (and Campbell was in attendance, too, which had to be a big draw).
Close behind in the per-screen tally were Noah’s Arc: Jumping the Broom (a gay-themed drama that I have no plans to review) earning $14,820 on each of five screens, and Synecdoche, New York (review coming soon), earning $11,111 on each of nine screens. For comparison’s sake, HSM3’s per-screen was $4,146; Changeling had the best per-screen among the top 5, at $5,085.
[numbers via Box Office Mojo]
