The Social Network matches critical acclaim to box office success. Here's Ron's look at the weekend box office...
Facebook shows no sign of slowing down as a phenomenon. Not only is it one of the world's most popular websites, with several hundred million members logging on daily, and not only is it worth billions of dollars, it's also the inspiration for what can officially be called a hit movie. The Social Network (reviewed here), the fictionalized story of Facebook's founding and early years, took in $22 million over the weekend, shooting to the top of the box office. David Fincher likes this.
The weekend's other two major releases, Case 39 and Let Me In, were both aiming for the supernatural audience. Case 39 (seventh place, $5.35 million) promised creepy demon action, and also some supernatural monsters that aren't Renee Zellweger. Let Me In (eighth place, $5.1 million) promised creepy child vampires. The one I saw was really good, but I was apparently one of the few who did see it. This has to be a disappointing debut weekend.
Holding on to second place this weekend is Legend Of The Guardians: The Owls Of Ga'Hoole, which is quite possibly the longest movie title since Precious: Based On The Novel Push By Sapphire. The owls and guardians and whatnot are proving to hold onto their audience fairly well, bringing in another $10.8 million this weekend.
Last week's top movie, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, drops to third place, but also drags in another $10 million at the multiplex.
The Town, which dropped to fourth place this weekend but held onto an impressive $9.7 million of box office lucre, is proving to be a very successful flick for Ben Affleck. Maybe he should've been sticking with crime dramas all this time? Or maybe he was able to return to the genre after people forgot about Reindeer Games. I have to admit to being one of the few people who actually likes Reindeer Games. Feel free to dismiss my opinion on everything from here on out, but any movie with Gary Sinise and naked Charlize Theron is all right by me.
Sliding down a slot are the comedies Easy A and You Again. Easy A took in an easy $6.7 million for Emma Stone, who is jumping from teen sex comedies right into the Spider-Man reboot. Meanwhile, You Again featured pretty much all the other females working in Hollywood right now, with Sigourney Weaver, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Betty White (who is obligated to appear in everything these days). You Again picked up $5.7 million this weekend, easily outdrawing the new releases.
Rounding out the top ten are Devil (ninth place, $3.56 million) and Alpha And Omega (tenth place, $2.9 million). Will Devil put the kibosh on M. Night Shyamalan's movie career? Probably not, but maybe it'll keep his name off the trailers for the next movie in his upcoming series of horror flicks, The Night Chronicles.
Speaking of upcoming movies, what's coming out this weekend, you ask? Well, there's Life As We Know It, which features a wacky mismatched pair who end up with a baby and who, no doubt, end up falling in love. Also out is Secretariat, a sports drama about the greatest thoroughbred racehorse who ever lived that looks like it's trying to be this year's Seabiscuit. The big release is Wes Craven's My Soul To Take, which pairs the famous horror director with everyone's favorite movie gimmick, to take the horror into the third dimension!
It looks like it's going to be a disappointing Halloween season for new horror films.