Battle at the Box Office 10/17

Real Steel managed to hold off the competition this weekend and earned another $16.3 million, putting it’s total to just under $52 million.  Close behind was the remake of Footloose with $15.5 million, which is an average opening for the dance genre (which includes the likes of the Step Up series).  A distant third was the prequel to the 80’s classic, The Thing.  All accounts say that it feels more like a lackluster remake and it made $8.5 million, worse than other horror remakes like The Stepfather and The Fog.  Box Office Mojo reports that this new thing, in fact, sold about as many tickets as it’s ’82 predecessor did in it’s opening weekend.  This new Thing will probably not turn into a beloved cult classic like the original.  Courageous had the same MO as it’s predecessor, Fireproof, hitting hard the first weekend and then quickly fading.  It only made $3.3 million and dropped from sixth to eighth.  Expect it to drop off the top ten maybe as early as next weekend.  Courageous still managed to defeat the other new release for the weekend, The Big Year, which opened at an abysmal ninth place with $3.2 million.  Easily the lowest opening for each of it’s stars (Steve Martin, Owen Wilson, Jack Black), apparently no one wanted to see a comedy about bird watching.   The heavy hitter this weekend is Paranormal Activity 3.  The PA franchise has taken over from the Saw series as the king of the Halloween box office and, considering the competition, I expect PA3 to easily be number one this coming weekend.