The weekend box office sales are in, and Lee Daniels’ The Butler has taken the top prize for the second weekend in a row.
Deadline reports that Lee Daniels’ The Butler made $17.0 million in it’s second weekend in theaters, giving it a cumulative total of $52.3 million domestically.
Lee Daniels’ The Butler stars Forest Whitaker as Cecil Gaines, based on the real-life White House butler Eugene Allen, and also features Oprah Winfrey as his wife, Robin Williams as President Eisenhower, John Cusack as President Nixon, and a slew of other stars including Live Schreiber, Jane Fonda, James Marsden, Minka Kelly, and Alan Rickman.
Paul Sweeney, an analyst with Bloomberg Industries, told Business Week, “Lee Daniels’ The Butler is benefitting from a lack of competition because the big summer movies pretty much are played out, so now the calendar is wide open for some more niche titles to try to find an audience.”
“I think it’ll play well for the next couple of weeks,” he added.
Rounding out the top five were We’re the Millers, which made $13.5 million in it’s third week for a total of $91.7 million, The Mortal Instruments, which made $9.2 million during its first weekend, The World’s End, which made $8.9 million during it’s opening weekend, and Planes, which made $8.6 million in its third weekend for a total of $59.6 million.
Photo Courtesy of TWCPublicity.com