Coen Brothers ‘Burn’ the Weekend Competition

Published by Jeff Leins on: September 14th, 2008

The Coen brothers comedy Burn After Reading edged out a packed crowd of new films and big names with an estimated $19.4 million for the weekend.

This is the biggest opening weekend for the pair, who won “Best Director” Oscars earlier this year for “Best Picture” No Country for Old Men. The rest of the all-star acting cast have all been nominated for or won Academy Awards of their own. It received good reviews from critics, just about 80% on Rotten Tomatoes.

In close second place was The Family That Preys, the latest crossover PG drama from multi-hyphenate Tyler Perry. The estimated $18 million is consistent with his other openings and will probably net around $50-60 million for Lionsgate, who has a first look deal for his films through 2011.

The overdue reunion of legendary actors Al Pacino and Robert DeNiro, Righteous Kill, came in third with $16.5 million. It was expected to win the weekend by some analysts, but was only able to attract a predominately older male audience. The movie has been getting absolutely hammered by movie critics, including my own review that I’ll post later today.

The fourth and final wide opener was The Women, starring a whole lot of them. The comedy about “contemporary womanhood in modern Manhattan society” made $10.4 million, significantly less than the $57 million opening for the other comedy about “contemporary womanhood in modern Manhattan society” (Sex and the City). Which is why they should have gone with my proposed title, Sex with the Women.

The rest finished as expected, except for Bangkok Dangerous which took a massive dive from first to eighth. It fell 69% from an already abysmal opening with only $2.4 million. It ranks as the 52nd largest second weekend drop off in recent history (since 1982). The Nicolas Cage actioner only made $904 per theater for the 3-day.

At least Bangkok wasn’t the worst this weekend. A movie called Proud American (I’ve honestly never heard of it) claimed the title of “Worst September Opening Ever” with just $135,000 across 750 theaters, an average of just $180 per theater or roughly 8 people per day.

1. Burn After Reading $19.4 million
2. The Family That Preys $18 million
3. Righteous Kill $16.5 million
4. The Women $10.4 million
5. The House Bunny $4.3 million
6. Tropic Thunder $4.2 million
7. The Dark Knight $4 million
8. Bangkok Dangerous $2.4 million
9. Traitor $2.1 million
10. Death Race $2 million