Real Steel Rocks Footloose, Socks The Thing, and Other Box Office News

Disapproving Dennis Quaid disapproves of your fondness for sinful robot fisticuffs.

Perhaps surprisingly, or unsurprisingly (I don't even know anymore), none of this weekend's new films were strong enough to unseat the mechanical behemoth that is Real Steel. For its second weekend in a row, the family-friendly robot fighting film punched its way to the top, earning $16.3 million for the weekend.

Yep, $16.3 was all it took to take the number one slot this weekend, though depending on how estimates shake out, there is an outside chance that Footloose, the inexplicably likable remake of the 1984 "dancing is banned so now Kevin Bacon has to show people how to shake it!" musical (sincerely, I'm still reeling from Rorie's positive review), could take the top spot away. It managed a very close second place finish, with $16.1 million. That was a markedly higher number than the third place-finishing The Thing, the prequel to (and sort-of remake of) John Carpenter's 1982 horror classic. Running less on the power of stars and more on the power of gore, the remake sadly only managed $8.7 million in ticket sales. Hell, I didn't even like the movie all that much, and I'm still kinda bummed it started off so badly.

Speaking of starting off badly, The Big Year, the Owen Wilson/Jack Black/Steve Martin comedy about bird watching, mid-life crises, absurdly competitive behavior, and probably some other junk they didn't fit into the confusing ass trailers too, absolutely tanked. It debuted ninth overall for the weekend, with just $3.5 million in box office returns. That is quite a bit less than any of the guessers in our Box Office Winners League posited, leading me to believe that none of those guys actually know anything about how the box office works.

The big winner in the indie/limited release market this weekend was the Pedro Almodovar drama The Skin I Live In. Opening on just six screens, it earned a whopping $231,000, good for a $38,500 per-screen average. On the complete other side of the coin, we have the Joel Schumacher abortion Trespass. I say abortion not because of the level of quality of the film (though I assume it is poor), but rather because the studio essentially dumped this revenge flick, which stars Nicolas Cage and Nicole Kidman, onto 10 screens at the same time it put it out On-Demand, and two weeks before it plans to release it on DVD. As a result, it made a piddling $18,200, which again, is way less than any of our guys predicted. You're terrible at this, duders.

Now for the full top ten list, which is now thankfully devoid of Dream House and/or Taylor Lautner-related stupidity.

Box Office Results: 10/14 - 10/16

	1. Real Steel $16.3 million / $51.7 million Nobody puts a robotic baby in the corner. That's how that line goes, right? I never actually saw Million Dollar Baby. Wasn't Hilary Swank a cyborg in that?
	2. Footloose $16.1 million / NEW Perhaps it was the hokey, antiquated premise (that was hokey and antiquated in 1984 also) that kept the kids away, but Footloose, I can safely say you are NO You Got Served.
	3. The Thing $8.7 million / NEW Apparently Ramona Flowers and that dude from Warrior as top-billing wasn't enough to draw people in. To be fair, they did everything they could. They literally showed you all of the damn monsters in the trailer. There was nothing left to show.
	4. The Ides of March $7.5 million / $22.1 million How is this movie not doing better? DO YOU PEOPLE NOT REALIZE HOW HANDSOME THESE ACTORS ARE?!?
	5. Dolphin Tale $6.3 million / $58.7 million In case Jack Black, Steve Martin, and/or Owen Wilson were looking for a good reason to quit making movies, being defeated by week four of a film featuring a goddamn bionic dolphin ought to do the trick. Just, you know, don't try to kill yourself again Owen Wilson. I may be a jerk, but I'm not that big of a jerk.
	6. Moneyball $5.5 million / $57.7 million Hey, I hear there's a World Series coming. Are the Oakland A's in it? Nope? Well then...
	7. 50/50 $4.3 million / $24.3 million Cancer!
	8. Courageous $3.4 million / $21.4 million I can't wait for this studio's next film, which will undoubtedly be about "Jesus Ween."
	9. The Big Year $3.3 million / NEW Quick poll: Did anyone who saw a TV ad or trailer for this ACTUALLY figure out what this movie was about? All I could tell was that these dudes were into bird watching, and somehow that involved them constantly trying to screw each other over. That makes sense, right?
	10. The Lion King $2.7 million / $90.5 million Sadly, Disney won't get to claim it earned another $100 million domestically from this little non-limited limited run, but hey, at least it managed to squeeze more money out of the American public that could have gone toward new, original films. Like Dolphin Tale...and Courageous...and...you know what? This argument doesn't hold up. I quit.

Dropped Out: Abduction; Dream House; What's Your Number?

Source: Box Office Mojo