The Social Network Opens Strong

Two horror films hurt each other’s potential while a likely awards season contender sailed to first place at the box office this weekend. The Social Network came out on top, while Case 39 and Let Me In finished in 7th and 8th place respectively.

Riding high on great buzz and terrific reviews David Fincher’s The Social Network pulled in $23 million and in doing so more than doubled any other film for the weekend. Marketing had been heavy for the film but its premise and some misconceptions (as the “Facebook movie”) made it a difficult sell initially. However word of mouth started to build after early screenings (check out my review here) and awareness rose in the weeks leading up to release. Budgeted at only $50 million it is well on its way to becoming profitable, and look for post-release word of mouth to keep it strong over coming weeks.

Interest in both of the horror movies was low but for differing reasons. Case 39, starring Renee Zellweger and Bradley Cooper, was filmed in 2006 and sat on the shelf until now. The studio knew they had a poor film on their hands but saw an opportunity to make some money back rather than send straight to DVD after it performed decently well in a few foreign markets. Let Me In got great reviews but as a remake of the highly regarded 2008 Swedish film Let the Right One In left in some moviegoers minds the question of whether it was actually necessary. It would have done better had Case 39 not moved in on its weekend. Both movies finished with about $5.3 million.

Among holdovers Legend of the Guardians held the best dropping only 32% which is typical for good family targeted films. It made $10.9 million while last weekend’s winner Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps fell 47% to $10.1 million.