Weekend Box Office: Johnny Knoxville and Co. Make Jackasses of the Competition

By Chris Kavan - 10/18/10 at 09:17 AM CT

In a move that, quite frankly, surprises the hell out of me, Jackass 3D not only opened #1, but may become the highest grossing opening of any movie in October with an estimated $50 million. It represents the highest opening of the film in the series, and brought more females this time around while scoring good exit numbers from a young audience.

Although a bit behind, the action / comedy Red was 2nd with a respectable $22.5 million. Since Jackass drew the young crowd in, Red was much better in the 35+ market and could hold up well with good word of mouth.

In third was The Social Network with $11 million. The film dropped only 29 percent from the previous week and has now made $63.1 million. Also holding well was the horse-racing film Secretariat, which had a scant 25 percent drop to remain in 4th with $9.5 million. Rounding out the top 5 was the romantic comedy Life As We Know It, which earned an additional $9.2 million and close to $30 million total.

Taking the biggest hit was the horror My Soul to Take, which lost 40 percent to land in 8th place with $3.1 million. Still hanging tough are The Town, which broke the $80 million mark with its 7th place $4 million and Easy A, which topped the $50 million mark with $2.6 million for 9th place.

Despite some good numbers, the box office was still off 5 percent from last year. Next weeks biggest draws look to be the Halloween-friendly sequel Paranormal Activity 2, Clint Eastwood's foray into the supernatural with Hereafter and the drama Company Men.