Weekend Box Office: Wonderfully Social but Let Me In Shut Out

By Chris Kavan - 10/04/10 at 09:42 AM CT

David Fincher's critical success can now be counted as a commercial success as The Social Network about the trials (legal and otherwise) of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg landed at #1with $23 million. Audiences looked to be just as impressed as critics, as the overall outlook was highly positive for the film.

The other two new releases met with a much darker fate. Despite the critics approval, the vampire remake Let Me In could only muster up $5.3 million for seventh place while the much-delayed Case 39 was right behind in 8th place.

With no other kid-friendly films in competition, the Owls of Ga'Hoole took second with $10.9 million, breaking $30 million total and dropping just 33% off of its opening. Also holding strong were Ben Affleck's The Town and the Emma Stone comedy Easy A - The Town was 4th with $10 million, Easy A 5th with $7 million.

The Wall Street sequel had a tougher time against the new drama taking a 47% hit, but still came in 3rd with $10.1 million.

If word of mouth holds strong, The Social Network has a good chance of repeating next week, where the crowded market sees the romantic comedy Life As We Know It, the feel-good Secretariat and thillers Buried and Stone all open.