Weekend Recap: King of Popcorn

It shouldn’t surprise anyone that Sony has announced it will extend This Is It to a third release week. The Michael Jackson behind-the-scenes footage easily moonwalked into first place with $23.2 million at the box office this weekend and made a tremendous killing overseas. In its first five days, it’s taken in a total gross of $102.9 million world-wide.

Well, that’s all there is to say about that.

In other box office news, the biggest surprise was that Law Abiding Citizen, which I predicted to fall out of the Top 5, jumped back up to third while Saw VI was the biggest flop dropping 62.7 percent from last week into 6th place – and on Halloween weekend no less.

1. This Is It - $23.2 M (weekend) … $34.4 (gross)
2. Paranormal Activity - $16.4 M … $84.6 M
3. Law Abiding Citizen - $7.4 M … $51.5 M
4. Couples Retreat - $6.5 M … $87 M
5. Where the Wild Things Are - $5.9 M … $62.6 M
6. Saw VI - $5.3 M … $22.5 M
7. Astro Boy - $3.5 M … $11.3 M
8. The Stepfather - $3.2 M … $24.5 M
9. Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant - $3.1 M … $10.8 M
10. Amelia - $3 M … $8.3M

Some other interesting facts: despite adding 459 new theaters this week, Paranormal Activity dropped just over 20 percent this weekend. Also, Rob Zombie’s Halloween II, which came out at the end of August, made about $445 thousand this weekend thanks to the holiday – that’s a 1,378.1 percent increase compared to last week. The Final Destination and Jennifer’s Body also saw gains over the Halloween weekend.

A bunch of excellent competitors hit theaters this Friday, so the box office should shake off its recent decline of the last couple weeks. Check back Friday for another preview.