Weekend Estimates: Resident Evil Dominates Slow Weekend

September 12, 2010

Resident Evil: Afterlife 3D dominated a tepid weekend at the box office, according to studio estimates released on Sunday. The movie's $27.7 million estimated opening will be a franchise record (see Resident Evil franchise history), although its $4 million increase from the opening of 2007's Extinction is basically accounted for by ticket price inflation. Still, it's fairly unusual for a franchise to hold up this well over four installments.

Outside the top spot, this was an eminently forgettable weekend. Machete stood out by falling a dramatic 63% from its opening weekend, but all the returning movies were weak. Takers is projected to end in second place with about $6.1 million, which will be lowest earnings for a second-placed movie since Disturbia finished second to Spider-Man 3's record breaking opening over the weekend of May 4, 2007.

The weekend as a whole will be the slowest of the year to date, and will likely fall in the 50 smallest weekends of the past decade (see complete list).

In limited release, The Romantics stood out with an average of $21,450 in two theaters.

- Weekend Estimates
- Friday estimates
- Saturday estimates
- Sunday projections

Filed under: Weekend Estimates, Resident Evil: Afterlife, Takers, The Romantics, Machete