Weekend Estimates: Help Top Again as Storm Batters Box Office

August 28, 2011

With many East Coast theaters closed on Saturday and Sunday thanks to Hurricane Irene, and a weak selection of new movies in the first place, this is shaping up to be one of the worst weekends of 2011. In fact, it could end up as the worst, depending on how Sunday's business works out. There's a lot of uncertainty in this week's estimates because of incomplete reports for Saturday and the unknown impact of the storm in the North East. One thing seems certain, though: The Help will top the chart again. It is expected to earn another $14.3 million, according to Disney, for a total of $96.6 million. It is still enjoying the best per theater average in the top ten, so it will stay in theaters for a while.

Colombiana opened to $10.3 million for second place, while Don't Be Afraid of the Dark earned $8.7 million in third. The latter is some way back from Insidious, FilmDistrict's first release, which debuted with $13.3 million in April. The biggest disappointment of the weekend, however, was Our Idiot Brother, which could manage only $6.6 million, continuing Weinstein's poor run of form.

Art-house films were particularly badly hit by the weather because many New York theaters were closed on Saturday and planning to remain shut today. Under those conditions, the openings for Circumstance ($45,500 in seven theaters) and Higher Ground ($22,905 in three theaters) are impressive.

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

Filed under: Weekend Estimates, Colombiana, The Help, Circumstance, Higher Ground