Three Openers Make For Record First November Weekend

Megamind, Due Date, and For Colored Girls all performed well helping to combine for a record breaking total to the holiday season kick-off weekend. The three totaled over $100 million and contributed to the top 10 which finished with $142 million.

The animated film Megamind, which released with the most 3D screens of any film to date, won the weekend with $47.6 million. That puts it in similar territory to How to Train Your Dragon, which went on to gross over $200 million domestically. Megamind is not likely to carry those type of legs but it should have some lasting appeal over the coming weeks.

Having received mostly positive reviews and with notable names such as Will Ferrell and Brad Pitt attached there was great potential but it still isn’t a Pixar film which are the ones that generally see openings larger than the range Megamind finished in. 66% of the gross came on 3D ticket sales which is higher than many of the recent 3D releases have received. Budgeted at $130 million it appears well on its way to making that back.

In second place it was the Todd Phillips comedy Due Date which pulled in $33.5 million. That may seem a bit disappointing especially when compared with The Hangover which started with $45 million. Due Date had that established as a winner to follow-up on and added one of the most marketable names in the business in Robert Downey Jr.

Still this take was the highest ever for an R rated comedy in the month of November and the eight highest total in history. It should hold up pretty well but it doesn’t look to have the word of mouth to carry it to being the breakout hit of the year. Reviews were very mixed as well.

Third place was Tyler Perry’s For Colored Girls with $20.1 million. Not the typical Perry film it still didn’t manage to draw good reviews despite being more of a drama than a comedy. His built in base still accounted for the solid opening but possibly dropping his name from the title made it less identifiable with that crowd.

Holdovers saw RED just continue its very slow decline falling just 17% to $8.8 million while the two horror films saw sharper falls. As expected Saw 3D and Paranormal Activity dropped heavily but they’ve already made what they needed to in order to be considered successes. .