Weekend Box Office: BITTEN by recording breaking “Hotel Transylvania”

It was a blood-sucking weekend at the box office with Hotel Transylvania setting a new record for the biggest opening weekend EVER in September, earning $43 million. It beat out previous record holder (wait for it…) Sweat Home Alabama ($35.6 mill). Guess they call it ‘Sleepy September’ for a reason. Hey, we love Reese Witherspoon too, but come on this unmemorable romantic comedy was 10 YEARS AGO and got 37% on Rotten Tomatoes—this speaks volumes about the caliber of films that debut in September.

That’s not meant to discredit Hotel Transylvania’s success though, which had the biggest opening since The Dark Knight Rises in July. TDKR took in $160 mill, meaning Hotel Transylvania was a close second—just $120 mill apart.

In a comparably distant second place, was this weekend’s No. 2 earning Sci-Fi action flick—Looper, which took in $21 million; one of Bruce Willis’ higher debuts in the last ten years. The big per-theater winner in this weekend’s top ten went to Pitch Perfect which opened in just 335 venues but still took sixth place, banking a solid $5 million for $15,000+ per screen (for comparison, Hotel Transylvania topped out at $12,840 each).

Below are the Top 5 box office performers this weekend:

1-  Hotel Transylvania* bit into $43 million during its opening weekend.

2-  Looper* earned $21 million in its debut weekend.

3-  End of Watch pulled in $8 million ($26 million during its first two weekends on duty).

4-  Trouble with the Curve pitched $7.5 million ($23 million for its 2-week total).

5-  House at the End of The Street wrangled up $7 million (for a total of $22 million in its first 2-weeks in theaters).