$37 mil weekend for Super 8

Super 8 ticked up above most estimates to earn $37 million its opening weekend. Deadline notes that District 9 pulled in a nearly identical sum of 37.3 mil in 2009. Some may say, sure, but District 9 was rightly famous for the bang-for-the-buck Neill Blomkamp achieved with a modest $30 mil budget. But you may be surprised to learn JJ Abrams was equally frugal, delivering Super 8 for around $50 million.

One thing I noticed at the Friday matinee screening — adults outnumbered teenagers in the audience by about 2:1. Not surprising, since the Super 8’s ’70’s setting is only nostalgic to those born before 1979. And most teenagers would rather see movies with adults behaving like 12-year-olds instead of the other way around.

X-Men First Class bring its 2-week total to $98 mil, and The Hangover Part II becomes the highest grossing movie of 2011, earning $216 million in just 18 days.