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Secretariat finished third this weekend, as Disney's faith-based horse racing flick stumbled out of the gate. The Blind Side wannabe opened to $12.6 million from 3,072 venues this weekend, where the Sandra Bullock starrer started with $34 million. With the ending to this one obvious, I don't quite get why Disney turned a fairly safe $32 million bet into a nightmare by spending 1.5 times the production budget on marketing. I could see it if you had a title that was hot, but Secretariat's 66% fresh rating doesn't exactly yell "go out and see this one." As far as legs, it will be interesting to see where this one goes. Seabiscuit earned over five times its $20 million opening weekend ($121 million domestic), and Secretariat has the Disney brand, but I doubt it, due to lack of quality and its inability to hold up as well over opening weekend.

Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole manages to stay in the top five this weekend. Those darn owls earned $7 million, and the movie was off 36% compared to last weekend. After a troubling $16 million opening weekend, The Owls have come back a bit due to mostly solid holds over the last two weekends, although that $80 million budget figure is still a ways off. The Owls may be able to eke $60 million out of North American theatres, then do the same overseas. In short, the Zack Snyder flick won't be a disaster. Give it $39.4 million so far.

Fifth spot goes to our other opener this weekend, Wes Craven's My Soul To Take. The Universal 3D flick is the third horror release out over the last two weekends, and this one fared much like the other two – poorly. My Soul To Take earned only $6.9 million from 2,572 venues, with about 1,800 of those being of the 3D variety. Produced for about $25 million, the Universal release is simple October filler, not costing the studio too much in the end. Like last weekend's Case 39, Soul was not screened for critics, but of the reviews that are available, one has to wonder why Wes Craven would return to directing after a six-year absence for this one. Maybe it was a warm up for Scream 4, which opens in April 2011.

Sixth goes to Ben Affleck's The Town, which had another solid hold in its fourth weekend of release. The Town earned $6.4 million this weekend, off 35% from the previous frame. The $37 million Warner Bros. release has now pulled in $73.8 million, and looks to finish with about $85-90 million.

Wall Street 2 finishes seventh this weekend as the sequel continues to struggle. After dropping 47% last weekend, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps dropped another 54% this weekend, earning only $4.6 million. The $70 million Michael Douglas starrer has a domestic cume so far of $43.7 million, and looks like it will finish with less than $60 million.

Screen Gems' Easy A finishes eighth. The high school comedy, now in its fourth weekend, earned $4.2 million and dropped 38%. The $8 million Emma Stone flick how now earned six times its production budget, as it sits with $48.1 million.

Ninth goes to Case 39, which finishes the weekend with $2.6 million, down 51% from last weekend's $5.4 million debut. You Again, the lame comedy starring Kristen Bell, found only $2.5 million as it dropped a pretty heavy 57% from last weekend. Its domestic total is $20.7 million.

Overall, this weekend the box office was quite soft. A year ago, Couples Retreat opened to $34.3 million and led the top 12 to $95.6 million. This year, with no $20 million opener, let alone a $30 million opener, the box office struggled, turning in a top 12 worth $81.4 million. This could open the door for a big weekend in the next frame. Jackass 3D opens for Paramount, and with openings for the previous films coming in at $22.7 and $29 million, the 3D price increase could propel this one over $30 million. Also opening is Red with Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman, and Helen Mirren, which has seen some decent reviews so far.

Top Weekend Box Office for 10/8/10-10/10/10 (Actuals)
Rank	Film	Distributor	Estimated Gross	Actual Gross	Weekly Change	Running Total
1	The Social Network	SONY	$15,500,000	$15,451,991	New	$46,021,161
2	Life as We Know It	Warner Bros. Pictures	$14,635,000	$14,506,464	New	$14,506,464
3	Secretariat	Walt Disney Pictures	$12,600,000	$12,694,770	New	$12,694,770
4	Legend of the Guardians: the Owls of Ga'hoole	WARNER BROS.	$7,015,000	$6,888,019	New	$39,273,984
5	My Soul to Take	Universal	$6,918,680	$6,842,220	New	$6,842,220
6	The Town	Warner Bros. Pictures	$6,350,000	$6,411,008	- 34.2%	$73,847,527
7	Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps	Fox	$4,625,000	$4,603,123	New	$43,644,701
8	Easy A	SONY	$4,200,000	$4,289,418	New	$48,289,418
9	Case 39	Paramount	$2,630,000	$2,680,305	- 49.9%	$9,650,005
10	You Again	Walt Disney Pictures	$2,474,000	$2,512,782	- 56.1%	$20,769,995
11	Let Me In	Overture Films	$2,400,000	$2,447,618	- 52.5%	$9,171,419
12	It's Kind of a Funny Story	Focus Features	$2,011,982	$2,013,406	New	$2,013,406
	Also Opening/Notables
	Stone		$73,000	$75,766	New	$75,766
	Nowhere Boy		$56,065	$52,749	New	$52,749
	Inside Job	Sony Classics	$42,017	$42,017	New	$42,017
	I Spit On Your Grave	Anchor Bay	$33,000	$32,064	New	$32,064
	Tamara Drewe	Sony Pictures Classics	$19,282	$19,282	New	$19,282
	Ghettophysics	Samuel Goldwyn	$10,229	$10,087	New	$10,087
	Budrus	Balcony	N/A	$7,819	New	$7,819
	Jim	Area23a	N/A	$7,809	New	$7,809
	As Good as Dead		$2,093	$1,494	New	$1,494
	You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger	Sony Classics	$282,064	$282,064	New	$872,737
	Waiting For 'Superman'	Paramount Vantage	$635,000	$630,863	New	$1,405,814
	Buried	Lionsgate	$200,000	$221,694	New	$511,038
	Devil	Universal	$1,773,660	$1,809,695	- 49.2%	$30,046,530
	Alpha & Omega	Lionsgate	$1,500,000	$1,500,390	New	$21,018,064
	Catfish	Universal	$373,659	$393,359	New	$2,236,110
	Never Let Me Go	Fox Searchlight	$350,000	$345,741	New	$1,149,704
	Jack Goes Boating	Overture Films	$56,000	$56,215	New	$372,305
	Resident Evil: Afterlife	Screen Gems (Sony)	$1,250,000	$1,225,120	- 56.0%	$58,866,846
	Inception	Warner Bros. Pictures	$510,000	$492,311	- 45.6%	$289,183,607
Click here for all weekend data
Box office data supplied by Exhibitor Relations

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