The Grosses: “Contagion”‘s Success Proves Uncontagious

Will Leitch
·Editor

Top Five (Full list)
1. "Contagion" $23,135,000 ($23,135,000)
2. "The Help" $8,691,000 ($137,093,000)
3. "Warrior" $5,607,000 ($5,607,000)
4. "The Debt" $4,905,000 ($21,993,000)
5. "Colombiana" $4,000,000 ($29,799,000)

First Place. We were wondering why so many ran screaming away from us this weekend when we tried to shake their hands: "Contagion" was a hit this weekend, bringing in $23.1 million, or about, oh, $3.5 million a movie star? (Also: That's why everyone was running away from us, right?) Still, the audience was older, and the CinemaScore (B-) was mediocre, so don't expect it to have "Help"-like legs. Also, "Help"-like legs is a serious medical condition and if you suffer from it, you should seek immediate attention.

YOU FLOPPED. Much has been made of "Creature," which notched the lowest opening weekend gross ($331,000) of any film to open on more than 1,500 screens. But we'd prefer to dance on the grave of "Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star," which made only $1.5 million despite having rotten the brains of anyone unfortunate enough to look at a banner ad over the last month. It somehow finished below Kevin Hart's concert film "Laugh at My Pain," even though that only played on 97 screens and we'd never heard of it before this morning. Commence grave dancing!

Impressive Bridesmaid. It was such a lousy weekend outside of "Contagion" that there really aren't any runners-up -- that's a seriously disappointing number for "Warrior," by the way -- but we guess we're a little surprised to see "Colombiana" in fifth place? Maybe? We're reaching.

Tiny Dancer. Setting aside Kevin Hart's concert film, not much to note here. Maybe that "Senna" passed the $1 million mark? Probably not.

Next Week's Contestants. "Straw Dogs" will get swamped, mainly because of the happy buzz for "Drive," which also happened to have advertisements swamping NFL games this weekend. For the ladies, "I Don't Know How She Does It" will feature Sarah Jessica Parker wearing nice clothes and talking on her cellphone. And "The Lion King" will be in 3-D for two weeks. It is not directed by Julie Taymor.