The fictionalized story of Cecil Gaines is, to some extent, about longevity. In Lee Daniels’ The Butler, Gaines served seven presidential administrations over the span of four decades.
So it seems only appropriate that the movie would stick around in theaters for a while, doesn’t it?
The Butler cleaned up again this week, buffing about $17 million out of moviegoers to once again stand stoically in first place. The film lost just 30% of its audience and has earned $52.3 million thus far. And while that success story isn’t quite as inspiring as The Butler’s own tale, it’s still pretty good for late August.
Of course, The Butler had lots of cooperation from a deluge of underperforming upstarts.
The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones was the highest performing newcomer, but it could only muster a $9.3 million weekend—trailing The Butler and We’re the Millers (which held onto second place for the third straight week with $13.5 million). It wasn’t even close.
But perhaps we shouldn’t have been surprised. It’s been a fairly dismal year thus far for movies based on young adult novels. The Host earned just $10.6 million its opening week this March and Beautiful Creatures earned a fairly ugly $7.6 million in its April debut. It just goes to show you that, if there aren’t sparkly vampires or arrow-shooting heroines in play, teens won’t necessarily pay.
Elsewhere, it wasn’t exactly the end of the world for Simon Pegg’s The World’s End. Sure, its $8.9 million take for fourth place isn’t the stuff of Hollywood legend, but it’s still a better opening than the other two movies in this so-called “Cornetto Trilogy” from director Edgar Wright: Cult classic Shaun of the Dead earned just $3.3 million its opening weekend in 2004, and 2007’s Hot Fuzz collected $5.8 mil. These movies, I guess, do better once they’re out on Netflix.
Disney’s Planes rounds out the Top 5 with $8.6 million, leaving the week’s other wide release—horror flick You’re Next—out shivering in the cold. The movie earned just $7.1 million to slide into seventh place. I doubt the folks at Lionsgate will be able to mask their disappointment.
Final figures update: 1. The Butler, $16.5 million; 2. We’re the Millers, $13 million; 3. The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones, $9.3 million; 4. The World’s End, $8.8 million; 5. Planes, $8.6 million.
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