October 9, 2011 by Vinnie Leduc
In its opening round, Real Steel scored the biggest debut ever for a boxing movie, easily good to win the box office title this weekend over fellow newcomer The Ides of March, which was the runner-up. The fall season typically holds a surge of acting-centric, star-packed Oscar bait like the new George Clooney-directed political drama, but a sci-fi action movie that felt like a summer blockbuster attracted audiences this weekend despite just mildly positive reviews.
Third and fourth place went to Dolphin Tale, last week‘s surprising defending champ, and baseball drama Moneyball, respectively. Both films continued to ride strong word-of-mouth in their third week of release, with the Brad Pitt movie barely leading the family film in total gross. Rounding out the top five was 50/50, which also enjoyed good word-of-mouth to decrease the least amongst last week’s new releases. The exile of former back-to-back champ The Lion King is complete now that its Blu-Ray release is out in full force; the popular Disney film dropped to No. 7 this weekend. However, Simba & friends continue to steadily climb the all-time domestic box office chart; the 3D re-release will soon push the grand total past Toy Story 3 for No. 9 all-time. In next week’s round, Real Steel defends its title against The Thing, Footloose, and The Big Year.
Here were the top 5 in the domestic box office last weekend via BOM:
- Real Steel — Weekend Gross: $27.3 million — Total Gross: $27.3 million (new)
- The Ides of March — Weekend Gross: $10.4 million — Total Gross: $10.4 million (new)
- Dolphin Tale — Weekend Gross: $9.2 million — Total Gross: $49.1 million (#1 last week)
- Moneyball — Weekend Gross: $7.5 million — Total Gross: $49.3 million (#2 last week)
- 50/50 — Weekend Gross: $5.5 million — Total Gross: $17.3 million (#5 last week)
