The Coen Brothers Burn Up the Box Office
Burn After Reading by Macall Polay/Focus Features
Joel and Ethan Coen's spy comedy
Burn After Reading helped the fall box office get back on track after a terrible opening a week ago, outselling three other newcomers to take the weekend's top spot.
According to Variety,
Reading, which stars Brad Pitt, George Clooney, John Malkovich and Frances McDormand, took in $19.6 million this weekend, marking the Coen Brothers' largest opening ever. While that number pales in comparison to the huge openings brought in by some of the summer's blockbusters, this weekend's top films (
Burn,
Tyler Perry's The Family That Preys with $18 million and the Robert De Niro and Al Pacino reuniting
Righteous Kill with $16.5 million) combined for a 35 percent increase in sales from the same weekend a year ago.
The weekend's other new release,
The Women, landed in fourth place with $10 million and
The House Bunny rounded out the Top 5 with $4.3 million. Last weekend's top-grossing flick
Bangkok Dangerous dropped a staggering 69 percent and fell to eighth place overall. -
Adam Bryant
