Singing, Dancing and Death Traps Rule the Box Office

The ComingSoon.net Box Office Report has been updated with studio estimates for the weekend. It was a big weekend at the box office, possibly the busiest October weekend in four years, as two anticipated sequels each opened in over 3,000 theaters. Going into the weekend, it was obvious that Disney's High School Musical 3: Senior Year was going to win the weekend based on the insane amount of advance ticket sales over the past two weeks, which accounted for an opening day of nearly $17 million on Friday. Despite having the fourth biggest daily gross in October, the musical's business dropped off roughly 9% on Saturday, which knocked early projections of over $50 million down to a more reasonable opening weekend estimate of $42 million. Lionsgate's fifth installment of their hit horror series Saw V was projected to do weaker business than its predecessors, but in fact, it fell just shy of the opening of the previous three movies by grossing an estimated $30.5 million in 3,060 theaters over the ... (link)