U.S Box Office Report - 7th - 9th September 2007

1. 3:10 To Yuma - $14.1M -$14.1M
2. Halloween - $10M - $44.2M
3. Superbad - $8M - $103M
4. Balls of Fury - $5.6M - $24.2M
5. The Bourne Ultimatum - $5.4M - $210M
6. Shoot 'Em Up - $5.4M - $5.4M
7. Rush Hour 3 - $5.3M - $129M
8. Mr. Bean's Holiday - $3.3M - $25M
9. The Nanny Diaries - $3.3M - $21M
10. Hairspray - $1.9M - $114M

Bit of an odd weekend for releases - the two major releases are aimed squarely at men, but in the US this weekend also marks the start of the NFL season meaning that Sunday takings may well be lower than on any other weekend. The Bale/Crowe remake 3:10 to Yuma opens in the top spot with a decent $14.1M. The film had somewhat limited appeal given it was a drama, a western one at that, and wasn't strictly action orientated. While Christian Bale and Russell Crowe are big names, neither of them are big enough to open a movie on their name alone (it could be argued that Batman opened Batman Begins, not Bale) so that opening weekend isn't too bad of a start. The film was very well reviewed and may well dig its heals into the top ten, if not the top spot, for a few weeks to come. It's worth noting that the film was only in 2,600 locations so that weekend total is pretty much what was expected of the movie.

The Halloween remake is off a huge 60% in its second weekend of release. The film is already approaching $50M after its Labour Day record opening and with it costing a rumoured $20M, the film should make a tidy profit when the final numbers are in. As we've seen previously, very few horror movies have a decent second weekend (the only recent film to go against this rule is 1408) so while that drop is large, it's pretty much expected. Horror movies are notorious for being heavily front loaded - genre fans rush out that first weekend to see the movie inflating its box office, the following weekend with very few people interested the movie, we see the resultant bigger than average drop.

Like Knocked Up, Superbad has dug its heals into the charts, dropping just one place this weekend, it's fourth of release. More importantly the film has crossed the $100M mark, the second Judd Apatow produced movie of the year to do so. Judd Apatow has a busy year ahead production-wise, being involved with Adamn Sandlers 'Don't Mess With The Zohan', drug comedy The Pineapple Express (with Seth Rogen) and Owen Wilson comedy 'Drillbit Taylor'.

Balls of Fury, failed to make much a dent last weekend and while the film has crossed the $20M mark it will find itself forgotten by the end of the month. You've only to look at what other comedies have done this summer to see how much of a disappointment this is. Still, it should have been made cheaply so should clear its production budget.

The Bourne Ultimatum sees a total global box office of over $300M this weekend, a resounding success for all concerned. A wise move to release late in the summer when most of the major competition is out of the way. The film would still have performed well but may have seen its screen count slashed much quicker had it opened in the middle of blockbuster season, thus reducing its access to a wider market. In the US the film should finish up with around $230M.

Shoot'em Up, the second new release of the week has struggled to find much of a market. Expect it to be more of a cult hit along the line of Crank, it had to fight for attention on its 2000 locations. Where it not for its respected stars (Clive Owen and Paul Giamatti) this would have been the type of film to go straight to video. Only a lack of new releases will stop this from falling fast. Like Crank, The Transporter and others, cultdom awaits Shoot'em Up on DVD.

Rush Hour 3 is still more than $12M shy of the total box office of the first movie. Another unspectacular weekend hasn't helped matters either and the film has now begun to shed its location count quickly (off more than 1000 screens since release) as it prepares for a DVD release in a few short months.

A simple lack of new releases has kept The Nanny Diaries from vanishing even quicker. In its 17 days on general release it's made a disappointing $21M - certainly no 'Devil Wears Prada' box office, a movie which The Nanny Diaries was compared to prior to release. Mr Bean's Holiday has done quite well in the US from its somewhat limited location count of 1700. Globally the film sits on a huge $214M, putting it as the 15th biggest movie of the year. The final slot this weekend goes to Hairspray which is seeing its last weekend on the charts after a very successful run.