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
Grant Burton says
Serenity in Australia……. this is an offical post from UIP Australia…..
Well it was quite a weekend at the box office, with football, hot weather, public holidays and school holidays, and movie marathons to disrupt the flow in various states…but the upshot is that SERENITY finished in 6th place for the weekend. Here is how the list panned out:
1. CINDERELLA MAN $1,369,572
2. WALLACE AND GROMIT $1,312,966
3. CHARLIE & CHOCOLATE FACTORY $1,253,751
4. DUKES OF HAZZARD $1,199,153
5. DEUCE BIGALOW $1,078,094
6. SERENITY $1,049,530 (cumulative total including previews is $1,111,987)
7. SKY HIGH $ 935,036
8. SHARK BOY AND LAVA GIRL $ 910,593
9. TRANSPORTER 2 $ 701,308
10. LITTLE FISH $ 316,499
Whilst we’d love to have finished higher up, and knocked CINDERELLA MAN for a loop, SERENITY still has the highest per screen average of any film in the top 15. It was also the top film in the cinema complexes in places like George Street (NSW), Broadway (NSW), Indooroopilly (QLD), Carousel (WA), Woden (ACT) and Belconnen (ACT).
So a lot will depend on how it holds during the coming weekend.
.. UIP Australia