‘Hotel Transylvania’ Books Record at Box Office: $43M
Audiences checked into “Hotel Transylvania” in impressive numbers, lifting Sony’s animated kids movie to a record-breaking $43 million box-office weekend.
It was the biggest September debut ever, the best for Sony Pictures Animation and, coupled with the $21.2 million debut of TriStar and Film District’s sci-fi thriller “Looper,” gave Sony a 1-2 punch that revived a moribund overall box office.The two films accounted for more than half of the overall grosses and, for the first time in a month, the overall box office was running ahead of the comparable week last year, by 20 percent.
The Saturday number posted by “Hotel Translyvania” — $19 million — was the biggest single September day ever, and was a 73 percent gain over Friday’s $11 million. The film is playing at 3,349 locations and earned a per-location average of $12,840.
The opening is the biggest box office debut since weekend since “Dark Knight Rises” took in $160 million back on July 20 and it beat the previous best September debut, which was posted by “Sweet Home Alabama” with $35.6 million in 2002. The best previous debut for Sony Animation was last summer’s “The Smurfs,” which bowed to $35.6 million.
Seventy-six percent of the “Hotel Transylvania” opening was driven by families and 24% was general moviegoers 12 and older. Of the audience over 12 years old, 60 percent was female. Women and kids under 18 years old gave it an “A” CinemaScore; it received an “A-” overall.
“Hotel Transylvania” features the voices of Adam Sandler, Andy Samberg, Kevin James, Selena Gomez, Steve Buscemi, Fran Drescher, Molly Shannon, Cee Lo Green and Jon Lovitz. Genndy Tartakovsky, who executive-produced the TV series “Star Wars: Clone Wars,” directs.
Tristar had Film District’s “Looper,” starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Bruce Willis, in 2,992 theaters. Audiences gave it a “B” CinemaScore. Emily Blunt and Jeff Daniels co-star in the time-travel saga written and directed by Rian Johnson (“Brick”).
The audience for “Looper” was 59 percent male and 70 percent was over 25 years of age.
The weekend’s other wide opener, Fox’s inspirational school drama “Won’t Back Down,” fizzled. It took in just $2.7 million from 2,515 locations over the three days. The PG-rated drama stars Viola Davis (“The Help”) and Maggie Gyllenhaal in the tale of two single mothers, one a teacher, trying to transform their children’s elementary charter school in Pittsburgh.
Universal was looking to give “Pitch Perfect” a boost with an unusual platform release, opening the musical comedy in just 335 theaters ahead of its wide opening next week.