As the name suggests, One Direction: This is Us is a documentary on the British boy band.
The Weinstein Company’s The Butler, starring Forest Whitaker as a long-serving White House butler, generated $14.7 million in ticket sales at domestic theatres from Friday through Sunday, according to studio estimates, which did not include projected sales for the US Labor Day holiday on Monday.
Its sales have totaled more than $74 million and the film is generating awards season buzz, including for co-star Oprah Winfrey, who plays Whitaker’s wife.
Warner Bros’ Jennifer Aniston hit, We’re the Millers, starring Jason Sudeikis in the drug smuggling comedy, was third with $12.6 million at US and Canadian theatres.
For One Direction, Sony worked with sister company Sony Music, which distributes the group’s music, to make the film, and signed Oscar-nominated director Morgan Spurlock to direct.
The clean-cut five-singer group, which finished third in the British version of the musical competition show The X Factor in 2010, has sold more than 10 million albums and 19 million singles, according to its management company’s website.
“We are thrilled with our result,” said Rory Bruer, Sony Pictures’ president of worldwide distribution. “It exceeded our expectations not only domestically, but everywhere, worldwide.”
The film’s opening looked to fall just shy of industry expectations of $22 million in ticket sales over the holiday weekend, with hollywood.com’s box office division projecting a $20.5 million total.
The film added another $14.5 million in 53 international markets, led by the United Kingdom.
Disney’s 2008 film Hanna Montana/Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert holds the record opening for the genre with $31.1 million, according to hollywood.com. Justin Bieber: Never Say Never, released by Paramount Pictures in 2011, opened with $29.5 million.
Walt Disney’s animated film Planes was fourth for the weekend with ticket sales of $7.8 million.
The fifth slot was a strong $7.5 million opening for Instructions Not Included, starring and directed by Mexican television star Eugenio Derbez. It was the biggest Spanish-language opening ever in North America, and positioned the film to become one of the highest-grossing Spanish-language films ever, hollywood.com said.
Another new film opening widely, Getaway, Warner Bros’ low-budget high speed action film starring Ethan Hawke as a former race car driver racing to save his kidnapped wife, managed only ninth place with $4.5 million in ticket sales, according to data made available by the hollywood.com.
Mortal Instruments, which stars Lily Collins as a teen who works to protect the world from demons, had weekend sales of $5.2 million for seventh spot. The movie, another bid to reach the teen audience that made Twilight a blockbuster, is based on a popular series of young adult novels written by Cassandra Clare.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 3rd, 2013.
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