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

Unbreakable 2 Coming? Kinda.

Unbreakable is one of my favourite comic book movies, even though it's not based on an actual comic book. But it is a realistic representation of someone who realizes he is a super hero. Not a super-man type, but a hero with powers who fits into our real world.

Still with me? Good.

M. Night Shyamalan has been teasing us with the idea of a sequel to Unbreakable since the film was released.  As it turns out, Shyamalan realizes that the film, for whatever reason, is not going to happen, so he's adapting his ideas for the sequel into a standalone film sans Bruce Willis' character.

Still with me? No? I don't blame you.

Shyamalan says he had "such a cool idea for a villain" for Unbreakable 2 that he began writing ideas around it. When the projct became less likely, he cannibalized that idea for his upcoming Night Chronicles series. The first of those films, Devil, hits theaters on Sept. 17.

With Shyamalan's name producing diminishing returns, if Devil and its follow-up fail at the box office, it's possible the Unbreakable non-sequel will never see the big screen anyway. If it's not a direct sequel then I say who cares, even though I am curious about what could have been.