This weekend, teen-heartthrob dominated, a White House butler remained strong, a Spanish family greatly exceeded expectations and the duo of Ethan Hawke and Selena Gomez bombed.

That’s the best way to summarize this past Labor Day weekend at the box office, which did solid business on a busier-than-expected holiday weekend.

The 3-D concert film “One Direction: This Is Us” claimed the top spot with an estimated $15.8 million. Compared to other concert films, the opening gross of the One Direction movie is lower than 2008’s “Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert” ($31 million), 2009’s “Michael Jackson’s This is It” ($23 million), and 2011’s “Justin Bieber: Never Say Never” ($29.5 million). But it is higher than the opening weekends of 2009’s “Jonas Brothers: The 3-D Concert Experience” ($12.5 million) and last year’s “Katy Perry: Part of Me” ($7 million).

Considering the film only cost $10 million to make, “One Direction: This Is Us” should be profitable for TriStar Pictures, a subsidiary of Columbia Pictures, which is owned by Sony. What’s especially noteworthy is that the film is already director Morgan Spurlock’s most profitable film ever, having surpassed the combined grosses of films including “Super Size Me,” “Where in the World Is Osama Bin Laden?” “POM Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold,” and “Comic-Con Episode IV: A Fan’s Hope.”

“One Direction: This Is Us” should maintain profit in the coming weeks given the film’s built-in audience — who have responded favorably to the film — and will continue to build its success through word-of-mouth, since the film received an “A” rating on CinemaScore.

The Weinstein Company’s “Lee Daniels’ The Butler” — the box office leader for the last two weekends — collected an estimated $14.8 million, bringing its total gross to just under $75 million. Not bad for a film that was made for only $30 million.

The second new release in the top 10 was Lions Gate Entertainment’s foreign film, “Instructions Not Included,” which drastically outperformed expectations and claimed the fourth spot, bringing in $7.8 million. That figure may not seem impressive, but it is, considering the film was only released in 348 theaters. Compared to the 2,735 theaters that screened this weekend’s top film, “One Direction: This is Us,” the average gross per theater of “Instructions Not Included” is more than the average per theater for the One Direction flick.

Given the film’s strong-word-of-mouth — “A+” on CinemaScore — and impressive per-theater average, Lions Gate will be expanding the Spanish-language family comedy to 500 theaters this weekend.

The final new release in this weekend’s top 10 was Warner Bros. Entertainment’s “Getaway,” which bombed with only $4.5 million in sales. Even with leads Ethan Hawke and Selena Gomez, star power alone is not enough. If the film is not well made, audiences simply will not pay money to see it. This film might have a very short run in theaters, as it has terrible reviews and an awful “C+” rating on CinemaScore, which might deter audiences from paying to see it.

Published on September 3, 2013 at 10:19 pm