'Contagion' tops weekend B.O.

'Contagion'In its domestic debut frame, Warner Bros.' epidemic ensembler "Contagion" won top B.O. honors by having an believed $23.a million from three,222 locations, including 254 in Imax. Pic beat Disney-DreamWorks' three-time champion "The Assistance,Inch during its fifth frame collected enough ($8.7 million) to position second for any cume of $137.a million.Abroad, Sony's "The Smurfs" held on top place because of its fifth straight week, grossing $14.9 million for any cume of $321.two million. But holdovers like "Buddies with Benefits" did well, growing to major marketplaces. "Benefits," also from The new sony, made a good weekend take of $10.two million, driven by bows within the U.K., France and Germany pic's cume arrived at $29.two million in four days."Contagion" opened up day and date in six marketplaces - Italia being the only real major territory - having a weekend gross of $2.a million.The Warner pic, which gained $2.3 million from Imax (or 10% of their Stateside bow), had lots of steam starting the weekend, since many B.O. commentators expected the pic to win having a debut around $20 million-$25 million."Contagion," toplining a topnotch cast which includes Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow, Laurence Fishburne, Kate Winslet, Jude Law and Marion Cotillard, beat two other studio wide releases: Lionsgate's "Warrior" bowed below anticipation with $5.six million, while Sony's R-ranked laffer "Bucky Larson: Born to become a Star" gained a dismal $1.5 million.The frame's top two game titles, each of which were co-funded by Participant Media, hooked mostly adult audiences, a boon demo for late August and publish-Labor Day box office.By comparison, "Bucky Larson" was likely to skew heavily toward males under 25 (The new sony did not conduct exit polls), though "Warrior" saw a comparatively even split between auds over and under 25. Actually, the second film made 51% of their opening from adult moviegoers - a statistic that Lionsgate distribution topper David Spitz characteristics to positive responses from advanced tests and good reviews."It is good to become tossing the very first punch on the market place," Spitz stated, mentioning towards the usual packed fall selection of adult-skewing photos. "The process all along ended up being to establish ourselves among the first important fall dramas."With "Contagion," Warner professional Vice president and general sales director Shaun Goldstein stated he slightly undervalued the film's weekend estimate, since some auds might stay at home for that 9/11 anni. (Goldstein stated the film may go up by roughly $200,000 with Monday's actuals.) Contact Andrew Stewart at andrew.stewart@variety.com