by Matt Marshall
Another summer at the box office is in the books and leave it to a rabid female fanbase to send boy band concert movie One Direction: This is Us to the top spot with $17 million over the Friday-to-Sunday weekend. Compared to last year’s Labor Day frame led by The Possession, this year was more congested with many holdovers continuing to hold strong.
Lee Daniels’ The Butler and We’re the Millers both dropped one spot from their previous week position, making room for One Direction while Planes bounced back to fourth place after four weeks at the box office. All three holdovers dropped under 11% from the previous weekend. Typically, Labor Day weekend holdovers do not hold his well, but all three films have been performing better than expected in the previous weeks.
British political thriller, Closed Circuit starring Eric Bana and Rebecca Hall and Ethan Hawke action vehicle Getaway also opened over the weekend; neither of which snagged a spot in the Top 5.
Note: These #’s are based on Sunday’s projections and can change with Monday’s actual #’s
#1 – One Direction: This is Us (NR)
$17.0 million / $17.0 million total
This Labor Day weekend, it appears the teenage girls won the battle over historical enthusiasts with One Direction: This is Us topping Lee Daniels’ The Butler for the top spot. Not a shocker, really. Concert movies draw decent bucks though One Direction still trails the opening weekends of Hannah Montana: Best of Both Worlds ($31.1 million) and Michael Jackson: This is It ($23.2 million). One Direction looks to be frontloaded, grossing of half of its weekend total on Friday alone.
#2 – Lee Daniels’ The Butler (1)
$14.7 million / $74.0 million total
After back-to-back weekends atop the box office charts, Lee Daniels’ historical drama The Butler dropped to second place in its third frame, pulling in an additional $15 million over the Labor Day weekend. The Weinstein Co. project can still take the top spot back over the four-day haul from One Direction, which appears heavily frontloaded. With the summer movie season ending this weekend, expect a hard hit next weekend with strong legs continuing to hold. The century mark is still on track to be broken around mid-September.
#3 – We’re the Millers (2)
$12.6 million / $109.6 million total
In its fourth outing, pot comedy We’re the Millers become the 20th film of 2013 to cross $100 million domestically after 24 days of release. (Actual numbers on Tuesday will determine whether the milestone will be 24 or 25 days) Down a mere 3.4% from last weekend, Millers has already outperformed the entire runs of other raunchy August comedies such as The 40-Year-Old Virgin and Tropic Thunder with tomorrow’s extra Labor Day boost. The Jennifer Aniston comedy should enjoy at least another week in the Top 5 charts.
#4 – Planes (5)
$7.8 million / $70.8 million total
Like The Butler and We’re the Millers, Planes is reaping the fact that there is no family-friendly competition currently at the box office. While the once straight-to-video spin off opened to a rocky start a few weeks ago, Planes is soaring much greater than originally expected. Until Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 gobbles up theaters later this month, Planes is the only option right now for families. For Disney, this unexpected success could spawn off even more sequels than just Planes: Fire and Rescue due out next summer.
#5 – Instructions Not Included (NR)
$7.5 million / $7.5 million total
Anyone who predicts the weekend box office on a regularly basis could not have seen this coming. Perhaps a strong hold for Elysium maybe or the Ethan Hawke film Getaway raking enough for a fifth place finish, but Instructions Not Included? The film opened in a mere 350 theaters to pull in nearly $8 million over the weekend. Not unheard of, but definitely rare. Does this mean that Instructions Not Included could be coming to a theater near you in the next few weeks? For a shocker like this, definitely.
Opening Next Week: Riddick, Salinger (limited release), The Ultimate Life (limited release)
Source: Box Office Mojo
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Matt Marshall is a YouTube movie reviewer who hosts MNMreviews. He has a B.A. in Communications/Journalism from St. John Fisher College and resides in Rochester, NY.
