Quality equals box office quanity: after 2 slow “weak”-ends “Burn After Reading” comes out on top of the 4 new movies this weekend

Joel and Ethan Cohen’s new comedy-drama “Burn After Reading” leads a pack of 4 new movies that includes “Righteous Kill”, “The Family That Preys”, and “The Women”…

…as expected “Bangkok Dangerous” drops from #1 to #8 in its 2nd week, following the downward trend of “Babylon A.D.” and its drop from #2 to #6 to #11 in just 3 weeks.   “Tropic Thunder” and “The Dark Knight” are still hanging around, merely pushed down 4 spots by the 4 new movies.

Top 10 Weekend Box Office list this week (stuido estimates):

1. “Burn After Reading” - $19.40 million (1st week)

2. “The Family That Preys” - $18.02 million (1st week)

3. “Righteous Kill” - $16.50 million (1st week)

4. “The Women” - $10.09 million (1st week)

5. “The House Bunny” - $4.30 million
(4th week, was #4 last week, lost 22% of its audience from last week)

6. “Tropic Thunder” - $4.18 million
(5th week, was #2 last week, lost 42% from last week)

7. “The Dark Knight” – $4.02 million (total gross: $517.68 million)
(9th week, was #3 last week, lost 27% of its audience from last week)

8. “Bangkok Dangerous” - $2.40 million
(2nd week, was #1 last week, lost 69% from last week)

9. “Traitor” - $2.13 million
(3rd week, was #5 last week, lost 50% of its audience from last week)

10. “Death Race” - $2.02 million
(4th week, was #7 last week, lost 46% of its audience from last week)

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Chasing History:

“The Dark Knight” continues to (more…)

“Bangkok Dangerous” was the top movie, but it was the only new movie in wide release and none earned more than $10 million

The fall trend continues… last weekend, only “Tropic Thunder” made more than $10 million, the week before 4 movies made more than $10 million, now this past weekend none of the movies even came close to that mark, setting up a very interesting weekend ahead…

Top 10 Weekend Box Office list this week (actual results):

1. “Bangkok Dangerous” - $7.78 million (1st week)

2. “Tropic Thunder” - $7.23 million
(4th week, was #1 last week, lost 37% from last week)

3. “The Dark Knight” – $5.52 million (total gross: $511.99 million)
(8th week, was #3 last week, lost 36% of its audience from last week)

4. “The House Bunny” - $5.51 million
(3rd week, was #4 last week, lost 33% of its audience from last week)

5. “Traitor” - $4.27 million
(2nd week, was #5 last week, lost 45% of its audience from last week) (more…)

“Tropic Thunder” was the only movie earning more than $10 million for the Labor Day Weekend

The previous weekend, 4 movies made more than $10 million, this past weekend, it was just “Tropic Thunder”… but as I mentioned last week… its only dominating the weak August offerings in the wake of “The Dark Knight”’s success…

“Tropic Thunder” was first for the 3rd weekend….  Vin Diesel’s “Babylon A.D.” was 2nd, but had the lowest per screen average of the top 5 movies, so its likely to fall next week… my pick for a possible acting nomination “Traitor” showed up in 5th place… “Disaster Movie” debuted in 7th…  and for the 2nd week in a row, a new movie - “College” – failed to make the top 10 (last week it was “The Rocker” in 13th place).

Top 10 Weekend Box Office list this week (actual results):

1. “Tropic Thunder” - $11.51 million
(3rd week at #1, lost 29% from last week)

2. “Babylon A.D.” - $9.56 million (1st week)

3. “The Dark Knight” – $8.61 million (total gross: $502.28 million)
(7th week, was #4 last week, lost 18% of its audience from last week)

4. “The House Bunny” - $8.30 million
(2nd week, was #2 last week, lost 43% of its audience from last week)

5. “Traitor” - $7.80 million (1st week) (more…)