Lion King 3D Stays Enthroned at US Weekend B-O

SEPT 26, 2011 - Four newcomers, two of which opened to over US$20 million, weren't quite strong enough to unseat The Lion King 3D, which held the top spot for the second weekend in a row. Moneyball and Dolphin Tale had strong starts and are currently neck-and-neck for second place, while Abduction and Killer Elite both underperformed.

Overall, the weekend box office tallied at least US$116 million, which makes it the highest-grossing September weekend ever.

The Lion King was off a light 27 percent to an estimated US$22.1 million, bringing the re-release's 10-day total to US$61.7 million. When added to previous Lion King grosses, the movie has now made a whopping US$390.2 million, which is good for 12th place on the all-time US domestic chart. The movie is poised to easily top US$400 million and move in to the all-time Top 10, but that's probably going to require extending the run past the two-week engagement that was initially planned.

Here are the Top 5 North American B-O studio estimates for Sept 23-25, 2011 weekend, in terms of rank, (previous week ranking), Movie name (studio), Weekend takings in USD, (Cumulative gross, USD) and week on chart, courtesy of Boxofficemojo. (US$1=RM3)

1. (1) The Lion King (3D) (Buena Vista) $22.1 million ($61.7 million) 2

2. (-) Moneyball (Sony/Columbia) $20.6 million ($20.6 million) 1

3. (-) Dolphin Tale (Warner Bros) $20.3 million ($20.3 million) 1

4. (-) Abduction (Lionsgate) $11.2 million ($11.2 million) 1

5. (-) Killer Elite (Open Road Films) $9.5 million ($9.5 million) 1