Weekly box office report: Gordon Gekko back in style

Michael Douglas's one-time master of the universe, Gordon Gekko, showed he could still close a deal, as Oliver Stone's sequel to his 1987 Wall Street won the weekend with $19 million.

Pairing Douglas with young Shia LaBeouf, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps also won the battle of long movie titles as it bested the $16.3 million announced for the 3D animated feature Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole.

Legend, based on the first three of Kathryn Lasky's 15-book fantasy series, can at least claim it's the top-opening owl movie ever, unless you count Harry Potter's mail carrier Hedwig. The film version united two disparate forces: Zach Snyder, the director of the R-rated fables 300 and Watchmen, with the guys who animated Happy Feet, that G-rated penguin movie of four years back. Legend started slow on Friday, picked up a number of Saturday-matinee kids yesterday and hopes to pull in more today than it did on its opening day.

The Town, the Boston-set crime drama, starring and directed by Ben Affleck, is expected to earn $16 million; its modest 33 per cent slump from its opening frame suggests that the movie will have long legs.

The Town easily outran this weekend's other wide release, You Again. The cross-generational romantic comedy was designed to appeal to all female demographics by starring actresses in their twenties (Odette Yustman), thirties (Kristen Bell), forties (Kristen Chenoweth), fifties (Jamie Lee Curtis), sixties (Sigourney Weaver) and oh-so-adorable eighties (Betty White), but grossed only $8.3 million.


Here are the Sunday estimates of this weekend's top-grossing pictures in North American theaters, as reported by Box Office Mojo:

1. Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, $19.7 million
2. Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole, $16.3 million
3. The Town, $16 million; $49.1 million
4. Easy A, $10.7 million; $32.8 million
5. You Again, $8.3 million
6. Devil, $6.5 million; $21.7 million
7. Resident Evil: Afterlife, $4.9 million; $52 million
8. Alpha and Omega, $4.7 million; $15.1 million
9. Takers, $1.65 million; $54.9 million
10. Inception, $1.2 million; $287.1 million

Box Office Report: The Town Comes Home To No. 1

B-Aff really went to town at the box office this weekend as the actor/director/co-screenwriter of The Town saw his crime drama perform much better than expected in its debut, taking in an estimated $23.8 million to open in first place, upsetting the widely predicted winner Easy A.

Ben Affleck's film, his second as a director, was expected to open in second place with around $15 to $17 million. Credit its actual performance to strong reviews, positive word of mouth and its status as the first serious Oscar hopeful to come out of the gate this season.

Easy A had to settle for second place and earned an estimated $18.2 million.

Opening in third place was Devil. The movie, the first in the Night Chronicles series of low-budget horror releases produced by M. Night Shyamalan, scared up an estimated $12.6 million.

'Devil' had to share a genre audience with last week's champ, Resident Evil: Afterlife. That film slipped to fourth place and lost 62 percent of its business, for an estimated take of $10.1 million. That second-week drop is typical for this franchise, but with a total so far of $44 million, Afterlife is on target to be the highest grossing of the four 'Resident Evil' movies.

Opening in fifth place was the 3-D animal cartoon Alpha and Omega with $9.2 million. It was the only new children's film in a marketplace currently devoid of family fare, but its marketing campaign was barely visible and few kids or their parents were likely aware of the film.

The full top 10:
1. The Town $23.8 million (2,861 screens), new release
2. Easy A $18.2 million (2,856), new release
3. Devil $12.6 million (2,809), new release
4. Resident Evil: Afterlife $10.1 million (3,209), $44.0 million total
5. Alpha and Omega $9.2 million (2,625), new release
6. Taker $3.0 million (2,139), $52.3 million
7. The American $2.8 million (2,457 screens), $32.9 million
8. Inception $2.02 million (1,305), $285.2 million
9. The Other Guys $2.0 million (1,827), $115.4 million
10. Machete $1.7 million (1,704), $24.3 million
10. Eat Pray Love $1.7 million (1,668), $77.7 million