“Where The Wild Things Are” tops box office, but not so fast…. look inside the numbers!!

A quick look at box office returns and you would think “Where The Wild Things Are” dominated the weekend box office, winning by more than $10 million.   But if the box office were a level playing field, ‘Wild Things’ would have finished second to “Paranormal Activity”.

“Where The Wild Things Are” made an estimated $32.47 million at 3,735 theaters – a $8,693 per theater average.   “Paranormal Activity” grossed $20.16 million at just 760 theaters – a $26,530 per theater average.   If you extrapolate that per theater average, putting ’Paranormal’ in twice as many theaters (1,520), it would have made about $40 million… and if ‘Paranormal’ had been in just half the number of theaters that ‘Wild Things’ was playing (1,867) it would have made a whopping $49 million.

Last weekend’s #1 “Couples Retreat” was bumped to 4th.  Overall, the weekend saw a 36% increase from last weekend, with $129.8 million, it was the biggest weekend since August 7-9 (when “G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra” was #1).

 TOP MOVIES AT WEEKEND BOX OFFICE (estimated results):
1. “Where The Wild Things Are” - $32.47 million (1st week)

2. “Law Abiding Citizen” – $21.25 million (1st week)

3. “Paranormal Activity” – $20.16 million
(4th week of limited release, was #4 last week, gained 155% – added 600 screens from last week)

4. “Couples Retreat” - $17.95 million
(2nd week, was #1 last week, lost 48% of audience from last week)

5. “The Stepfather” – $12.30 million (1st week)

6. “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs” – $8.10 million
(5th week, was #3 last week, lost 30% from last week)

7. “Zombieland” – $7.80 million
(3rd week, was #2 last week, lost 47% from last week)

8. “Toy Story”/”Toy Story 2″ – $3.01 million
(3rd week, was #4 last week, lost 61% from last week)

9. “Surrogates” – $1.92 million
(4th week, was #6 last week, lost 55% from last week)

10. “The Invention of Lying” – $1.91 million
(3rd week, was #7 last week, lost 43% from last week)

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11. “Whip It” - $1.53 million
(3rd week, was #8 last week, lost 46% last week)

12. “Capitalism: A Love Story” – $1.43 million
(4th week, was #9 last week, lost 46% from last week)

CLICK HERE FOR LAST WEEK’S BOX OFFICE REPORT

“Where The Wild Things Are” poster courtesy Warner Brothers

Box Office numbers courtesy Box Office Mojo