No surprise to me: “High School Musical 3″ was #1, “Saw V” was #2, all other movies fighting for #3 at the weekend box office

New movies last Friday: “High School Musical 3: Senior Year”, “Saw V”, ”Pride and Glory”

This was a REALLY GOOD WEEKEND for theaters and studios, the total grosses were up 40% from last weekend…. the top 12 grossed more than $100 million ($119.84 million) for the first time since the weekend of August 15-17 (opening weekend for “Tropic Thunder”/5th week for “Dark Knight”)… its also about 40% higher than this time last year !!!

TOP 10 WEEKEND BOX OFFICE (actual results):

1. “High School Musical 3” - $42.03 million (1st week)

2. “Saw V” - $30.05 million (1st week)

3. “Max Payne” - $7.60 million
(2nd week, was #1 last week, lost 57% of its audience from last week)

4. “Beverly Hills Chihuahua” - $6.88 million
(4th week, was #2 last week, lost 40% of its audience from last week)

5. “Pride and Glory” - $6.26 million (1st week)

6. “The Secret Life of Bees” - $6.05 million
(2nd week, was #3 last week, lost 43% of its audience from last week)

7. “W.” - $5.09 million
(2nd week, was #4 last week, lost 52% of its audience from last week)

8. “Eagle Eye” - $5.05 million
(4th week, was #5 last week, lost 28% of its audience from last week)

9. “Body of Lies” - $4.06 million
(3rd week, was #6 last week, lost 40% of its audience from last week)

10. “Quarantine” - $2.58 million
(3rd week, was #7 last week, lost 58% of its audience from last week)

My Box Office Predicitions were 7 out of 10, mostly because I thought ”Pride and Glory” would do better than 5th place… I was also close on the $$ amounts for all but ”Pride and Glory”.

NOT “KING OF THE WORLD”… YET:

20. “The Dark Knight” – $0.30 million (total gross: $527.82 million)
(15th week, was #20 last week, lost 28% of its audience from last week)

“The Dark Knight” isn’t going to catch “Titanic” ($600.78 million) for the highest grossing movie ever in the U.S. right now, but it might after the planned re-release in January (for Academy Award push and of course.. more $$$$ !!!

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Box Office numbers courtesy Box Office Mojo

“High School Musical 3″ poster courtesy Disney

“The Dark Knight” poster courtesy Warner Bros.

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