Weekend Estimates: Hotel Transylvania Sets September Record

September 30, 2012

Hotel Transylvania will set a new September weekend record by a big margin this weekend, according to Sony's estimate released on Sunday morning. The film's expected $43 million debut is more than 20% bigger than Sweet Home Alabama's opening exactly ten years ago, although a 38% increase in ticket price in the last decade means it's a bit more of a marketing record than a real one. Still, $43 million is a very useful boost to the industry, which has been in the doldrums in September. In fact, this will be the first weekend of the month to record a win on the 2011 year-on-year comparison. Also helping is a great opening weekend for Looper, which will itself end up in the top 30 September weekends, with Sony projecting $21.2 million right now. All-in-all, it's a great weekend for the studio.

Also making an impressive debut this weekend is Pitch Perfect, which Universal is predicting will open with about $5.2 million from just 335 theaters. That will give it a per theater average of around $15,000, the best of the weekend.

The one bust of the weekend is Won't Back Down, which almost completely failed to find an audience and will gross around $2.7 million for a per theater average not much above $1,000.

In limited release, The Perks of Being a Wallflower will top $1 million for the weekend from just 102 theaters and looks like a good bet for a place in the top ten in the next week or two. The only other release to top $10,000 on the per theater chart looks like being The Other Dream Team. The basketball documentary is currently predicted to bring in $22,174 from two theaters.

- Weekend Estimates
- Biggest Weekends in September

Bruce Nash bruce.nash@the-numbers.com

Filed under: Weekend Estimates, Looper, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Won't Back Down, Pitch Perfect, The Other Dream Team