Ethan and Joel Coen’s farce Burn After Reading led a vibrant boom at the fall box office, debuting to an estimated $19.4 million from 2,651 theaters to give the siblings and Focus Features their biggest opening gross ever.
Three other new wide releases Tyler Perry’s the Family that Preys, Righteous Kill and The Women all performed strongly for such a crowded marketplace dominated by adult-focused films.
The Family that Preys came in second, the first Tyler Perry film not to premiere in the #1 spot, grossing an estimated from $18 million from 2,070 theatres and playing largely to an African-American audience.
The Al Pacino-Robert De Niro cop drama Righteous Kill grossed an estimated $16.5 million from 3,152 screens to place No. 3.
Marking the final release from Picturehouse, The Women, a remake of the classic 1939 George Cukor film, debuted to an estimated $10 million from 2,962 locations.
Here is this week’s Top 10 -
| 1 | Burn After Reading (2008) | $19.4M | $19.4M | |
| 2 | The Family That Preys (2008) | $18M | $18M | |
| 3 | Righteous Kill (2008) | $16.5M | $16.5M | |
| 4 | The Women (2008/I) | $10.1M | $10.1M | |
| 5 | The House Bunny (2008) | $4.3M | $42.2M | |
| 6 | Tropic Thunder (2008) | $4.18M | $103M | |
| 7 | The Dark Knight (2008) | $4.01M | $518M | |
| 8 | Bangkok Dangerous (2008) | $2.4M | $12.5M | |
| 9 | Traitor (2008) | $2.13M | $20.7M | |
| 10 | Death Race (2008) | $2.02M | $33.2M |
Brad Pitt can be so funny, as long as he’s not taking himself too seriously… in any case, it’s about time someone made good use of his habitually spastic arm movements