Weekend Estimates: Beverly Hills Chihuahua Scores Healthy Win

October 5, 2008

Beverly Hills Chihuahua rose above a very crowded field of openers to claim the box office crown, according to studio estimates released on Sunday. The movie scored Disney's biggest opening weekend in October with an estimated $29 million. Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist also performed well with a $12 million debut in 2,421 theaters. That's a great return for a movie with a budget reported at $13 million. The other strong performer was Appaloosa, which expanded to 1,045 theaters and pulled in $5.015 million for an impressive 5th place. The rest of the wide openers didn't fare so well, although a couple of limited releases impressed...

Among the wide openers, An American Carol and Flash of Genius both earned a shade over $2,000 per theater to finish with $3.8 million and $2.3 million respectively. That's pretty disappointing, but looks positively healthy compared to the starts for Blindness ($2 million, at an average of $1,185) and How to Lose Friends and Alienate People ($1.4 million, average $801). All four movies look set to fade rapidly.

Two new limited releases performed more strongly, however. Religulous earned $3.5 million from 502 theaters -- enough to creep into the top ten in tenth spot. Rachel Getting Married scored an impressive $300,000 in just 9 theaters, and looks set to top the per theater average list for the weekend. The final noteworthy limited release was The Duchess which continued to perform well as it expanded to 127 theaters and picked up $895,000.

- Weekend Estimates

Filed under: Weekend Estimates, Beverly Hills Chihuahua, Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist, The Duchess, Religulous, Rachel Getting Married, Flash of Genius, How to Lose Friends & Alienate People, Appaloosa, An American Carol