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SATURDAY PM/SUNDAY AM: Actor/director Ben Affleck’s Warner Bros crime thriller is overperforming at the North American box office. Extrapolating from Friday’s $8.3M grosses and Saturday’s $9.5M (+13%), it easily finished No. 1 this opening weekend when it was only predicted to come in 2nd. It received a “B+” CinemaScore. (Males 55% rated it A-, and those under 18 rated it A+.) The Town‘s opening gross has moved WB into the #1 market share for 2010 “and we will retain that crown for the third year in a row,” a studio exec boasts to me. The R-rated movie’s $23.8M was still well shy of the $28.6M of the same studio’s October 6, 2006, Boston crime thriller The Departed directed by Martin Scorsese. That “R”-rated film starred Jack Nicholson, Leonardo DiCaprio and Matt Damon and went on to win Best Picture Oscar. Affleck’s The Town is also in the running and stars Affleck, Jeremy Renner (The Hurt Locker) and Jon Hamm (Mad Men). Warner Bros even marketed it as The Departed 2. The studio, which financed The Town 50/50 with Legendary Pictures, paired its first trailer with Inception.
For his 2nd big directing effort after Gone Baby Gone also based on a book (Chuck Hogan’s Prince Of Thieves), Affleck promoted the heck out of it. He called movie journalists personally in Hollywood, NYC, flyover country, and eventually this month’s Venice and Toronto Film Festivals. Even so, at the start of this week, expectations were for The Town to open in only second place to a teen movie — and trail by a large margin. But the tracking spiked as the big TV ad campaign kicked it up a notch in the last few days. So Warner Bros distribution czar Dan Fellman pushed up the print count. I think Hollywood underestimated The Town‘s great buzz among starving adult audiences but also its coolness quotient for ages 18-to-25. Trust me, Affleck’s career trajectory rarely happens in Hollywood: from Oscar-winning co-writer to tabloid heartthrob to washed-up star after Gigli to budding director to hot actor/helmer with the #1 movie. What an Industry!
Hollywood thought Sony’s Easy A and Universal’s Devil, would each make around $20M because they’re PG-13 pics, surpassing The Town. Nope. Easy A from Screen Gems is a cut above content-wise according to critics and had an “A-” CinemaScore. But it was marketed like yet another lame high school angstfest. Still, the pic’s grosses of $18.2M more than doubled the film’s $8M production cost in the first 3 days of release. Devil is the first in M Night Shyamalan’s financing deal with Media Rights Capital under The Night Chronicles production banner, formed to generate genre films he doesn’t have to helm. Distributor Universal acquired worldwide rights to Devil from MRC for $27 million and had high hopes. But with only $12.6M, “the film came in on the low side of expectations,” the studio said matter-of-factly Sunday. But given moviegoers’ loss of faith in Shyamalan after so many of his recent movies have tanked, Devil‘s really lousy trailer, and its laughable premise of Satan-in-an-elevator that earned it only a “C+” CinemaScore — and little surprise it underperformed. The film also debuted in 7 international markets for an estimated $2.3M.
The toon Alpha & Omega, a Lionsgate co-production with Crest Animation for a $20M budget, earned a “B” CinemaScore. It was targeted to young children, as opposed to the bigger broadbased audiences of Toy Story 3, Shrek, Despicable Me, etc. That limits grosses. When early research indicated that the movie would play much stronger with Moms and young daughters, Lionsgate really targeted its modest marketing money to daytime TV and mommy blogs. “It’s fair to say that if you don’t have kids, you might have missed the campaign,” one exec tells me.
Here’s the Top 10:
1. The Town (Warner Bros) NEW [2,861 Theaters]
Friday $8.3M, Saturday $9.5M, Weekend $23.8M
2. Easy A (Screen Gems/Sony) NEW [2,856 Theaters]
Friday $6.7M, Saturday $7.1M, Weekend $18.2M
3. Devil (Universal) NEW [2,809 Theaters]
Friday $4.9M, Saturday $4.9M, Weekend $12.6M
4. Resident Evil: Afterlife 3D (Screen Gems/Sony) Week 2 [3,209 Theaters]
Friday $3M, Saturday $4.3M, Weekend $10.1M, Cume $43.9M
5. Alpha & Omega (Lionsgate) NEW [2,625 Theaters]
Friday $2.3M, Saturday $4.1M, Weekend $9.2M
6. Takers (Screen Gems/Sony) Week 3 []
Friday $930K, Saturday $1.4M, Weekend $3M, Cume $52.3M
7. The American (Focus Features) Week 3 [2,457 Theaters]
Friday $835K, Saturday $1.2M, Weekend $2.7M, Cume $32.8M
8. The Other Guys (Sony) Week 7 [1,827 Theaters]
Friday $590K, Saturday $930K, Weekend $2M, Cume $115.4M
9. Inception (Warner Bros) Week 10 [1,305 Theaters]
Friday $595K, Saturday $930K, Weekend $2M, Cume $285.1M
10. Eat Pray Love (Sony) Week 6 [1,668 Theaters]
Friday $520K, Saturday $700K, Weekend $1.7, Cume $77.6M
Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.
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Good to see a smartly written, well-acted adult crime drama perform well at the box office. I was worried that The Town would somehow get lost in the September graveyard of films but with the positive critical reception it looks like it was able to break through to the adult audience. I’m happy for Ben Affleck, Jeremy Renner, Jon Hamm and the rest of the crew. Affleck’s made tremendous strides since his Daredevil/Paycheck/Gigli days and seems to have found a nice niche as a writer/director. Between this and the upcoming Company Men, which has also earned some positive early buzz, this looks like it might finally be his year.
^^^ I agree. This might be my favorite film so far this year.
Shows you that a great story, great cast and smart promotion can actually work for Hollywood with something that is unique.
Not only is ‘The Town’ over-performing box-office expectations, but it really blew me with how terrific it was. When advertising says it is like ‘The Departed’ and ‘Heat’ and actually delivers, I am impressed.
That is good news about Affleck’s ,Town.A successful drama is good for the movie business,overall.
It’s also fantastic for all of us adults, and parents, (in the industry or not) who still love to go to movies. I gotta say, take a note on this one studios: I am totally exhausted from the summer kid schlep and the first two weeks of back-to-school. Me, and every other parent out there. When I saw that a movie like this – marketed to me, an adult – was coming out in MID-SEPTEMBER, I got a babysitter, cleared my schedule, made a dinner reservation with my husband & friends (fellow exhausted parents), and saw this fantastic film. In short, I had an great – adult – evening OUT.
It was a miracle.
My thoughts exactly. We saw it with a packed audience of 30 and 40 somethings last night, and I did not see an iphone light or hear a peep out of anyone for the entire film. People seemed really hooked in, and I couldn’t help but think despite all of the uneasiness with the longevity of the industry in general, if hollywood can keep making stuff like this, people *will* turn out. I’m happy for Affleck and all involved.
Yes – very excited for Affleck’s next turn. And big props to everyone in marketing over at Warner Bros. Someone over there has it right.
Actually, all the openers did decent to good. Even Alpha & Omega easily could have done worse. Great for The Town though. It could easily top $80M with the good word-of-mouth powering it.
Surprised Easy A is doing so well
Not surprised one bit. Emma Stone has such a wonderful screne presence. I loved her in “Zombieland” and in “The House Bunny.” Besides being be-u-tee-ful, she has the acting chops to go all the way.
Just saw it today in NYC. The audience laughed their heads off, so glad wit and smarts still play in some parts of the country. It is so great to see this kind of savvy in the American comedic marketplace, thought it was a dying breed on our shores. Props to the writer, director and actors, job well done.
Yeah, that trailer was incredibly off-putting. Still have absolutely no desire to see it.
I’m WAY out of Easy A’s demographics, but I just saw it and thought it was very good. Not great by any means, but definitely a good movie. Probably even better if you actually are closer to the teenagers ages than the parents.
Ben Affleck always seemed to me to be one of the good guys in Hollywood.I am glad his career has rebounded nicely and hope it stays in a positive mode for a long time.
PS Now he just needs to do a Kevin Smith film like Dogma 2 for those of us who always had his back
a kevin smith film is exactly what he DOESN’T need to do at this point.
Hopefully those figures hold.
WOW look at that drop for Resident Evil!
That’s a standard drop for a horror movie. Generally the people that have to see it rush to the theaters opening night and then the movie just coasts on fumes the rest of the way.
Actually it might be on course for the smallest drop in the series so far. If you ask me considering this is very much a B movie treated as an A movie (with IMAX and 3D and everything else) it’s doing extremely well. Will certainly be an all time high for the series.
I’m happy for them too. Ben in particular is someone I’m always rooting for. That said I’m concerned by the feedback I’m hearing from some who are underwhelmed. I would hate to see him get it wrong. With Ben’s last film I thought he made a very poor decision in choosing Casey. His brother, while not bad, is simply not lead material and not someone I’m interested in following. There are the actors who fascinate and others who do not.
What? Casey was fantastic in Gone Baby Gone. I appreciated the fact that they didn’t just throw a face up there but someone with acting chops. I like that Casey isn’t normally considered leading man material. He’s just a good actor and in the end that’s all that should matter.
Damn, I am pleased as a pig in Mississippi mud over the success of The Town. Way to go Ben, and to the rest of this smart, talented cast. And thank you backers of The Town for not forgetting to put together a good story in the heist genre. Solid screenplay. The Town is like a more cerebral “Takers” if you ask me.
BUT Nikki what’s up with calling Easy A ” a lame teen movie”? It’s not my cup of tea and it seems, from the surface, to be a bit precious and snarkily self-regarding. That said, it has culled pretty stellar reviews on Rotten Tomatoes and might be among the best comedies reviewed this year and certainly is one of the best teen movies in terms of reviews in YEARS. Maybe you groaned while watching the trailer as I did Nikki. But it’s sorta fair to give credit where credit is due. The movie hit its mark, if a barely. And for the gorgeous and super-talented Emma Stone East A is a step up from, um, “The House Bunny” …right? I wish the kid nothing but bigger movies and better roles in the future!
The LITERARY ADAPTATION THE TOWN is based on Chuck Hogan’s award-winning novel “Prince of Thieves”. Please, Nikki, at least mention source material and don’t make a habit of this (Mezrich had any right to be pissed at deadline’s omission of his name re: THE SOCIAL NETWORK). It stinks when screenwriters finally get mentioned – and then it’s a lit adaptation and the source material isn’t mentioned… Affleck’s GONE BABY GONE was also a literary adaption. Weird to connect this new adaptation to the adaptation of an Asian movie – THE DEPARTED.
I thought one of the points of literary adaptations was the supposed “built in audience”. Perhaps a couple of people actually read this book and now go and check out the movie?
Maybe one of these days Hollywood will put 2 and 2 together and rethink the strict rules re: spec scripts. Of course a 400 page book can paint a better picture of the characters and the world per se than a 120 page script that’s supposed to sport “plenty of white space”. Of course the novel contains lots of stuff that doesn’t end up on the screen – but it informs…
Actually she was saying that EASY A was marketed like a typical lame-brained teen picture, which is one of the reasons it’s not doing better.
I think it’s doing perfectly well. It’s so easy for high school movies to miss the mark completely (everything from “The Girl Next Door” to “College” to “The Perfect Score” to “Bratz” all opened to around $5 million) — the $18 million shows it’s connected with its audience.
Long-term looks decent too…even halfway-successful teen comedies like “Accepted” and “John Tucker Must Die” had pretty good legs.
Not sure how Hollywoods finest didn’t see that coming. The Town’s marketing was innovative. Tv spots were electric and the choice of the nuns with guns for still visuals was perfectly disturbing to grab your eye. Easy A seemed like the same thing over and over no matter where you saw it. And Devil, well, that might have benefitted if they abandoned M. Night’s name on every spot and went with the Dowdles credits instead.
HA HA, I guessed 25 million for the weekend. It’s a well made, bloody, guy flick. It’s a white Takers. It should do well enough. And because it is white, it automatically gets Oscar consideration. It’s a WIN WIN all around.
The big difference – Takers was borderline unwatchable and The Town was an actual good movie.
I’m quick to point out racial inequity in the industry, but come on: Takers was not a good movie. It had a very appealing cast, guns, and…I can’t think of anything else. There’s no comparison.
And yet another miss for MRC and M. night…what a shocker.
“A lame teen movie”?
The funny thing is that “Easy A” is actually the only teen movie in a long time to get decent, some even great, reviews. It’s 85% fresh on Rottentomatoes.com and Ebert gave it 3 and a half star (“The Town” only got 3).
I haven’t seen it but your dismissal of it seems to be a little on autopilot to ring true.
Nikki wasn’t dissing “Easy A”, she was dissing Sony/Screen Gems’ marketing of the film.
Um, Ebert liked “Land of the Lost”. And “Gigli”. Just sayin’.
great. saw it tonight and it was fantastic. affleck sure is acquitting himself as a director quite nicely.
not sure why you’re knocking easy as a “lame” teen movie. it’s getting fantastic reviews. probably will check it out.
Easy A and The Town are both great movies in their own way, so it’s great to see them both having a good OW.
Good for Affleck!
M Night is finished. His moniker only gets laughter in theatres now. After the Village debacle and Disney settling that plagiarism lawsuit with Scholastic and the author of ‘Running Out of Time’… His career has gone down hill.
I’d love to see a David Koepp vs M Night mash-up since Night steals most everything from Koepp’s work.
“Night steals most everything from Koepp’s work.”
Thanks for the laugh of the year…
Haha. I’m sure Mr. Shyamalan will take the several hundred million dollars he’s made as his own proof of worth.
In absence of Cinemascore, use the new Audeince Score at Rotten Tomtoez (through Flixster) — at least check it out? Lots of scores already posted — audience response to both Easy A and Town are roughly equal last I looked.
The burning question, no pun intended, is what does that floppety-flop sound coming from “Devil” spell for the career of one Mr. M. Night? The guy just can’t catch a break.
I don’t think in our lifetime we’ve ever witnessed the implosion of a career that begin with such out-of-this-world promise and expectation…. Is the Devil one of the final nails in his professional coffin or will someone give him a chance yet again? (I remember when the Devil’s trailer was shown in my local mega-plex and M. Night’s named was announced in basso profundo people collectively gasped and groaned, “F*CK NO!!!!!!”)
The guy’s 15 minutes are painfully up. I hope he turns it around. Maybe he should pull a “Reverse Affleck” and try, well, acting… (After all, going from acting to directing showed Ben’s true chops and celluloid magic!)
I don’t know if you’ve seen Lady in the Water, my friend, but M. Night has tried acting. He (modestly, of course) cast himself as a writer with the fate of saving the world with his work. It’s one of the most awful performances I’ve ever seen.
Get over yourself. He was downright terrific in Lady in the Water. Terrific. You sound jealous. He is a terrific writer. His talent is evident and exciting. If he choosing to act full time he will blow Tarantino’s and Eli Roth out of the Lady in the Water.
Get a life, man.
Thank you.
Get a life? To a guy who is a personality on a blog?
You like Night’s movies? You have no credibility.
Um. In case you didn’t know, “The Last Airbender” was a hit.
What are YOU smoking?
Night’s last film:
“The Last Airbender”.
Production budget was $150 mil.
It broke even in foreign ALONE: $150,553,923
American domestic: $131,446,626
Worldwide gross: $282,000,549
That’s called a HIT.
And with his exec producer role on “Devil”? It’s production cost was only $10 million. It’s made a profit in its FIRST WEEKEND already.
Learn math.
LA Times reported the prod budget at $150mil and the marketing budget at $130mil. Venues take ~50% of the box office gross, and as a branded entertainment property there’s probably a good chunk of first-dollar going out to third parties who aren’t Paramount and Nickelodeon.
$280mil WW ain’t exactly a Wolfman flop, but I can’t imagine they’re terribly happy with those numbers either.
One problem: You’re not considering marketing budgets on those films, which can exceed half the price of the production cost. That said, you’re right, most people who wonder why he keeps getting greenlights on his movies don’t realize that his movies never really tank financially. He breaks even, makes a little money or loses a little bit. And, truth be told, with a guy that talented — and he is tremendously talented — he’s got another great movie or two or three in him, and every studio wants to be there when it happens.
David,
1) Theater chains keep %50 of domestic gross.
2) Theater chains keep %60 of foreign gross.
So, the Studio gets $65,723,313 in domestic gross, and $60,221,569 in foreign.
3) This means that the studio only got $125,944,882 from the last airbender, when the budget was $150,000,000.
4) But wait, it gets worse. A movie like The Last Airbender can easily spend 100 mil on P&A, that means prints and advertising, so all of a sudden that $150 mil is looking more like $250 mil.
5) Sometimes a film can make up a loss like this once the DVD comes out, but as Last Airbender was marketed as a 3D experience that you need to see in the theater, and most people hated it, I doubt this will be the case.
I am glad you know math, but if you are going to post on this site you need to learn movie math!
What theater chain are you working for John. Independent? Most major chains do not keep the figures you report. Last I checked, distribution commands roughly 85% of ticket price. Popcorn sales account for theater profit. It is the Distributor, not the Exhibitor that makes those profits. If the Distributor wastes their percentage of the projected box ticket sales in marketing then so be it. Fire their asses. However, the studio will always recoup their production budget from the film, rest assured. It’s like shopping at the grocery store. The milk is on sale because the bread is overpriced. As far as M Night is concerned… his movies recoup costs faster at the studio level which is why so much money is poured into marketing them. He definitely can spark debate. Besides, he didn’t direct this, just produce… In all honesty, I wish audiences would judge films on artistic merit rather than celebrity anyhow. And I wish these filmmakers would stop trying to make movies play to a defined audience. We need different unusual film experiences once in a while. Like them or not.
Theater chains most certainly do not take 50% of gross. It may get down there after a month or so, but in the beginning the studio keeps about 90%. That’s why concessions cost so much.
Thank you, Teddy! I am so sick of reading this erroneous 50% figure echoed by people who have never worked a day on the business. The head of a theatrical disributors’ group published an article last year (I believe on Yaho) that outlined the split. It is a negotiable firgurem but it does NOT reach the 50% mark until a film had been in the theatres for a LONG period of time.
Thanks for the movie math lesson, Jonathan. Can you please deign to educate us little people on how much of that $100M marketing budget is put into sister company coffers? Does corporate synergy make the true number $70M? $50M maybe? Or perhaps you can break down the $150M budget for us as well?
Uh who pays the full budget to make a movie. Some states offer a 40% tax credit… it’s not valid to look at the total cost it takes to make a movie in deciding whether to make it, only how much you have to spend.
You’re forgetting his EXEC PRODUCER role comes with a $20 million purchase price up front.
I am so happy to witness the end of M. Night Shamalot.
After all of his derivative movies, the blatant theft of his biggest hit from the legendary Richard Matheson’s “Stir Of Echoes,” being sued for stealing “running Out Of Time” he has finally run out of things to steal.
So what does he do?
He “produces” other directors, a legal way to steal.
We are in the age of thievery people. From Scamalot to that bloated hack Tyler Perry. Steal and be rewarded by the corporate masters for your sin.
If M. Night really wants to revive his career, it’s high time he started adapting books. There are any number of works his directing style would be aces for, so what’s his problem? Sheesh, most of Hitchcock’s biggest hits were from novels…
You’re right that The Town taking the top stop is a surprise, but Easy A and Devil both opened decently well.
Devil definitely didn’t bomb. It looks like it’ll gross $13-15M. Not bad for a horror film starring a bunch of nobodies.
I’m sure awesome reviews helped The Town.
Amen to that brother. Emma Stone is a breath of fresh air in a world where “leading” ladies in teen comedies seem to be all eye candy and no talent.
Gorgeous, funny, girl, with a good head on her shoulders; so far.
I’m kind of surprised at the solid reaction and reviews to Town. I was a big fan of Affleck’s Gone Baby Gone and thought Town paled in comparison. It was a decent heist flick, but wasn’t nearly as entertaining as other staples of the genre. The plot just had too many easy devices that pushed it forward at key moments. Several lines in it had the audience around me snickering at the corniness of the dialogue, despite the solid delivery of its actors.
Here’s to hoping Affleck’s next directorial effort is better. Not that Town was bad, I was just expecting more overall and better storytelling after Gone Baby Gone.
THANK YOU. This movie SUCKED. THE ACTING (save Renner, and Hamm in a thankless role) SUCKED. Affleck did his USUAL ‘wannabe’ Southie bullsh*t. Lockjawed, mumbled mouth – add tracksuit. LOL I predict word of mouth will be nil, except from boys who like to see crap shot up and blown up – which I know there are a lot. The only smart thing about this movie, is the marketing people who put those creepy nun masks w/ automatic weapons on the poster. There is NO emotional connection to ANY of these characters, you won’t care about a one…and the performances that certain PR flacks are hyping?? There is no plot and what there is of one is cheesey and so ‘movie of the week-ish,’ you will cringe. NO WAY, this gets to 100 mil. Don’t believe me, check it out for yourself if you want to waste 20 bucks – come back here, and BE HONEST. Blake Lively in her ‘blink and you’ll miss her’ screentime (THANKFULLY) is atrocious. Her accent is laughably bad, and she lets her smoky eye makeup do all the acting. She’s an actress for whom a triple coat of mascara is her approach to character development. She literally has two scenes, and neither impresses. Don’t believe HER hype especially. Ditto Rebecaa Hall who defines milktoast. Affleck, re this film, must have PR that rivals Jennifer Aniston’s, or Blake (On the over of Vogue 3 times for nothing) Lively’s apparently. I see staffers are all over this board rubbing one out over this – but if you’re a lay person, don’t let them fool you. NO WAY, does anyone save Renner (and this character is no stretch for him)deserve anything from this piece of schlock. Point Break was better. This movie makes movies like The Departed, or Salt look like masterpieces.
dude, put down your six-pack of Hater-ade!
PS Email back when ‘the town’ goes north of 100 millie in three weeks, ok?
Dumbest post ever. Great movie on all counts.
Wow, did Ben screw you wife or something, because this film currently stand at 93% ranting on RT and is already in talks for Oscars. Clearly my friend, your rant stands in the minority.
Actually, Dana Steven at Slate has a spoiler podcast that goes over similar ground and Ty Burr and Wesley Morris of the Boston Globe have a similar take on the film in their video podcast depsite it getting a 3 out of 4 star rating.
People seem to be quite kind to this film overall. I think they want to see Ben do well, and they’re given it points for being kind of an adult movie. It’s borderline ridiculous but it’s fun. That’s all. The Oscar talk is way ridiculous and Ben is his usual underperforming self. He knows how to direct basic scenes but he could really use an acting class or two or three or 100.
Jason, just because someone’s opinion is in the minority, does NOT make that opinion invalid.
So glad to see Ben back. Going to see it this afternoon. Can’t wait.
THE TOWN AND BEN A. ARE FANTASTIC IN EVERY ELEMENT IN THIS MOVIE!
Thank you for your opinion…I TOTALL DISAGREE…When a group of us came out of the Movie, charged with energy, smiles and WOWs, you can’t blow that off in any critical Gooble Gooch … as all know it all attitute appeared to do!!!!!
I knew “The Town” would over perform. It hits different demographics. It gets young men. Older audiences. Urban audiences looking for a good heist movie. And the people who see it’s so well reviewed. And with over 100 reviews in, it’s at 93% with all critics, and 91% with top critics on RT. That is one of the best reviewed films all year.
Good for Affleck, all my friends have been tweeting about how good the film was, and have been talking about how Lively and Renner are standouts.
I can’t wait to finally catch it tonight for myself.
As for “Easy A”, the marketing was bad. It is supposedly better than “Mean Girls”, but the marketing for “Mean Girls” was ace. I will probably catch a matinee during the week when the kids are at school and not texting during the film.
I’m glad The Town did well. We need more films like this and no more comic books.
Not only that but it’s finally nice to see a well reviewed Affleck movie do some great BO whereas Extract,State of Play,and Gone Baby Gone all disappointed at the BO. It’s usually his crap movies (He’s Just Not That Into You) that people flock to instead.
but.. but what about Road to Perdition and History of Violence? They’re films like Town and were the comic books in first place.
What was Devil’s budget? I assumed around 10 mil, hardly underperforming and making a tidy profit with probably 30 mil total
Keep in mind that Uni paid 27 mil for the distribution rights, plus a P&A campaign, so I’d put cost closer to 60…cheap movies don’t distribute and advertise themselves.
Cool that Easy A is making a pretty solid opening. Would love to see Emma Stone take up the path Lohan should have after the success of Mean Girls rather than becoming a disaster, Stone is a likable and fine actress.
Have not seen The Town yet, but probably will. Looks like a great movie.