Weekend Box Office: September 23-25
Sun, September 25, 2011 
Courtesy of Box Office Mojo:
1. The Lion King 3D - $22.1 million
2. Moneyball - $20.6 million
3. Dolphin Tale - $20.2 million
4. Abduction - $11.2 million
5. Killer Elite - $9.5 million
6. Contagion - $8.5 million
7. Drive - $5.7 million
8. The Help - $4.4 million
9. Straw Dogs - $2.1 million
10. I Don't Know How She Does It - $2 million
After two weeks, it's still good to be the king. Despite facing a slew of new releases, Disney's 3D re-release of The Lion King easily grabbed the top spot for the second weekend in a row, earning $22.1 million. That puts it at $61.7 million since opening last week, and its cumulative total since the original 1994 run at $390.1 million. Hakuna matata!
It was a good weekend to be a baseball movie too (decent timing as well, with the MLB playoffs just around the corner), as Moneyball, starring Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill, scored a decent $20.6 million. That makes it the best opening for a baseball movie since 2006's The Benchwarmers, which opened with $19.7 million.
Dolphin Tale, the go-to movie for families who've already seen The Lion King, also opened strongly, with an estimated $20.2 million. That's so close to Moneyball that the two films may need to switch places when the actual weekend numbers are figured in.
The dismally reviewed Abduction flatlined this weekend with just $11.2 million/ It would appear the "Team Jacob" contingent of the Twilight fanbase showed up to see star Taylor Lautner, but no one else did. Well, at least he can console himself with the impending Breaking Dawn release later this fall. The film did fare better than Jason Statham's latest effort, Killer Elite, which opened with a lackluster $9.5 million.
Holdovers Contagion and The Help continued to play well, and even Drive, which received an ominous "C-" Cinemascore grade from audiences, earned a decent $5.7 million in its second weekend.
Next weekend sees the releases of 50/50, starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Seth Rogen, as well the comedy What's Your Number? and the Daniel Craig psychological thriller Dream House.
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