Weekend Estimates: Spielberg Homage Earns Super $37 Million

June 12, 2011

As someone on Twitter put it this morning, Super 8's $37 million opening takes E.T.'s lifetime gross to $472 million.

The robust opening for J.J. Abrams homage to Steven Spielberg will satisfy Paramount, especially with the heart of the Summer season ahead of it, good reviews and great word-of-mouth. $100 million should be easily achieved from this beginning, and even better numbers aren't out of the question. For a film that reportedly cost $50 million, that's not bad going.

In second place, X-Men: First Class landed right in line with expectations at $25 million, and will pass $100 million on Monday. Relativity Media will be less pleased with the weekend performance of Judy Moody and the Not Bummer Summer, which only mustered $6.3 million in its first outing and likely won't stick around in theaters for long.

Midnight in Paris continued an excellent Summer for art-house movies by expanding out of art-houses and into multiplexes this weekend. Its $6.1 million was enough for 8th place. The Tree of Life, meanwhile, moved up to 11th with an $875,000 weekend in just 47 theaters. It will top the per theater chart again this weekend, although Beginners (in its second weekend) and The Trip (in its first) both topped $13,000 per theater in limited release to keep Tree on its toes. All three will see further expansion in weeks to come.

- 3-Day Weekend Estimates
- Friday daily estimates
- Saturday daily estimates
- Sunday daily projections

Filed under: Weekend Estimates, Beginners, Midnight in Paris, X-Men: First Class, Judy Moody and the Not Bummer Summer, Super 8, The Tree of Life, The Trip