Weekend Box Office: Real Steel Clobbers Competition

By Chris Kavan - 10/10/11 at 01:10 AM CT

The robots of Real Steel rocked and socked their way to the top of the box office this weekend.

With an estimated $27.3 million, the robot boxing film took top place. If you're comparing it to other boxing or sports movies, it did spectacular business besting Rocky IV's $20 million and coming in just behind Blind Side's $34.1 million. However, if you're comparing it to science fiction films, it didn't even break A.I.'s $29.4 million. While it was a solid opening, chances of it reaching the $100 million mark seem slim.

Coming in second, the political thriller The Ides of March took in $10.4 million. It was on par with George Clooney's Michael Clayton ($10.37 million) but behind Leatherheads ($12.7 million). It seems audiences have enough political drama in real life and didn't need more at the theater.

In third place, Dolphin Tale has the best week-to-week holdover, dropping just over 34%, landing in third with $9.1 million. The family film has now taken in $49 million over three weeks and easily surpassed its $37 million budget.

Rounding out the top five, and also holding well, Moneyball dropped about 38% for a fourth-place $7.5 million finish. The sports drama stands at $49.2 million. In fifth place, 50/50 dropped 36% and took in another $5.5 million bringing its two-week total to $17.3 million, more than doubling its $8 million budget.

Things didn't look so bright for Dream House or What's Your Number. Also entering their second week, Dream House took a nearly 45% to fall to 8th place with $4.5 million and a scary $14.5 million total. What's Your Number dropped 44% to land in 9th with $3 million and a dreary $10.3 million total.

Next week The Thing looks to scare up big numbers, the remake of Footloose will try to dance its way to victory and The Big Year will attempt to make a comedy out of bird-watching. We'll see if any of them make an impact with audiences.