'The Butler' cleans up with $25 million

Box office report: 'The Butler' cleans up with $25 million

The Butler was the only new film that performed within its range of expectations, and it also received a robust A CinemaScore evaluation from audiences, boding well for a healthy run.

Kick-Ass 2, despite a respectable B+ CinemaScore, took in only $13.6 million for a disappointing fourth-place finish.

Jobs took in a pathetic $6.7 million, but that seemed like Avatar compared to Paranoia, which limped across the finish line with a mere $3.5M, which was the eighth worst gross in history among films in 2400 or more theaters, and the worst of this year in that category. Both of those films earned weak CinemaScore evaluations (B- Jobs, C+ Paranoia), so we can expect them to drop hard next week and then disappear.

Among the carry-overs, only We're The Millers held up well. That film posted only a 32% drop, which indicates some decent word-of-mouth. Elysium dropped a steep 54%, as expected, to fall behind We're The Millers, which it beat last week. Because Elysium fell so soon and so hard, We're The Millers actually had a brief (four days, Mon-Thurs) run as the #1 film in America!