30 DAYS OF NIGHT sucks money out of slow weekend

Saw this Halloween season, the Sam Raimi produced and David Slade directed vampire movie 30 Days of Night has sucked away more money than any other flick this weekend, topping the Box Office charts with a $16 million opening on a weekend that saw a 10% drop in receipts from this time last year. 30 Days of Night's first place opening is another one of those 3:10 to Yuma style success' where yes it did O.K. and is top of the pile, but it hasn't quite made the number the studio execs will have been secretly hoping for (the film was budgeted at $30 million, so it ain't gonna be a huge money maker unless it does well overseas)... but it probably should be enough for a second 30 Days of Night with a smaller budget. Despite a huge number of new releases (7), it was only Ben Affleck's directorial debut Gone Baby Gone that also climbed into the top 5, scoring $6 million and earning fifth place. That opening shows that Affleck can't make any more money as a director at the moment than he can as an actor (it's pretty much the same total as every lead role he's had in the last 5 years) but add the critical acclaim behind the camera for this movie and his acting acclaim for Hollywoodland last year and slowly but steadily Affleck is on his way back. Again not impressed by the new releases, last week's first place movie Why Did I Get Married? dropped only 42% of it's audience and added another $12.1 million to it's near $40 million total. Great timing has helped that movie soar to a better than expected total. The Rock starrer The Game Plan nears $70 million and has been a massive hit, strong word of mouth is keeping Michael Clayton afloat at fourth, We Own the Night has made it's money back in it's second week but will drop out of the charts next week and won't be a big earner. The Nightmare Before Christmas in 3D! continues to make money despite the film being 14 years old, as it managed 8th place and a cool $5.14 million. New Line's dreadful looking political thriller Rendition starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Reese Witherspoon absolutely flopped to a $4.2 million taking and barely made the top ten. 1 30 Days of Night (2007) $16M $16M 2 Why Did I Get Married? (2007) $12.1M $38.9M 3 The Game Plan (2007) $8.12M $69.2M 4 Michael Clayton (2007) $7.1M $22M 5 Gone Baby Gone (2007) $6M $6M 6 The Comebacks (2007) $5.85M $5.85M 7 We Own the Night (2007) $5.5M $19.8M 8 The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) $5.14M $5.14M 9 Rendition (2007) $4.17M $4.17M 10 The Heartbreak Kid (2007) $3.9M $32.1M RELEASED NEXT WEEK: SAW IV, DAN IN REAL LIFE THE SIGNAL (limited), JIMMY CARTER MAN FROM PLAINS (limited), RAILS & TAILS (limited), DARK BLUE ALMOST BLACK (limited), MUSIC WITHIN (limited), HOW TO COOK YOUR LIFE (limited), BELLA (limited) source - imdb