Source: Zap2It and ComingSoon.net
Submitted by: Sevens & Kyle Nin

Diehard Browncoats were able to push Joss Whedon’s “Serenity” to a $10 million opening weekend, but there just weren’t enough surviving “Firefly” fans to put the film ahead of “Flightplan” at the domestic box office.

The Jodie Foster thriller pulled in just over $15 million in its second frame to take the weekend crown for the three-day period ending Sunday, Oct. 2. Despite earning mixed-to-negative reviews, “Flightplan” fell off only 39 percent, a decent retention for the genre. Playing in 3,424 locations, the Buena Vista release averaged $4,392 per theater, bringing its cumulative gross to $46.1 million.

Universal Pictures’ “Serenity,” which brought the cast and crew of the short-lived FOX drama “Firefly” to the big screen, played in more than 1000 fewer locations (2188 in total) that “Flightplan,” but averaged a slightly higher $4,616 per screen to earn an estimated $10.1 million. Given the number of devoted fans for the cult series, the true test for “Serenity” will come next weekend. The first week figures were somewhere in line with industry expectations, but don’t necessarily indicate that the film has immediately found a crossover audience.

Here was the Box Office Standings for the weekend just ended:

1) Flightplan
2) Serenity
3) Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride
4) A History of Violence
5) Into the Blue
6) Just Like Heaven
7) The Exorcism of Emily Rose
8) Roll Bounce
9) The Greatest Game Ever Played
10) The 40-Year-Old Virgin
11) Lord of War
12) The Constant Gardener