Weekend Box Office: September 14-16

Courtesy of Box Office Mojo:

1.  Resident Evil: Retribution - $21.1 millon

2.  Finding Nemo 3D - $17.5 million

3.  The Possession - $5.8 million

4.  Lawless - $4.2 million

5.  ParaNorman - $3.039 million

6.  The Expendables 2 - $3.030 million

7.  The Words - $2.880 million

8.  The Bourne Legacy - $2.875 million

9.  The Odd Life of Timothy Green - $2.5 million

10.  The Campaign - $2.4 million

The fifth Resident Evil film easily took the top spot this weekend with an estimated $21.1 million.  That's a smaller opening than the previous film, Resident Evil: Afterlife, which opened with $26.7 million in 2010, and the first of the sequels not to earn more than the movie before it, but not a bad start considering it's, well...the fifth movie in a series based on a video game.  It also was the first major release to take over the IMAX screens since The Dark Knight Rises opened in July.  As a result, Batman dropped out of the top ten for the first time, but it still earned another $2.1 million over the weekend to bring its domestic total to $441 million.

It looks like the 'bringing-classics-back-to-theaters-in-3D' trend is starting to fade a bit, as Finding Nemo 3D earned $17.5 million.  Not a bad start, but it's the lowest opening of the Disney 3D re-releases so far (although not by much: Beauty and the Beast 3D opened with $17.8 million a few months back).  Obviously nothing is going to hurt Nemo, seeing as it's still Pixar's second-highest grossing film behind Toy Story 3 and is sure to be a popular holiday gift when it's released on blu-ray in December, but none of the recent 3D re-releases have been able to come close to The Lion King's $30.2 million opening last year.

In extremely limited release - 5 theaters - Oscar hopeful The Master did major business this weekend, earning an estimated $730,000.  Just to compare:  The Master's per-screen average this weekend was $146,000, while Resident Evil's was $7000. 

It's also worthy to note that The Possession has been holding on very well.  Unlike most horror films, which have one good weekend and die, The Possession held the top spot for the weeks in a row (granted, without much competition), and only dropped 38% this weekend when it fell to third place.  That's not bad.

There are bunch of new releases coming next weekend, including the 'we needed this?' remake Dredd 3D, Jennifer Lawrence taking a break from fighting for District 12 in The House at the End of the Street, Jake Gyllenhaal's cop drama End of Watch, Clint Eastwood's Trouble With the Curve, and festival favorite The Perks of Being a Wallflower.  Basically, something for everyone.