Hotel Transylvania gets $43 million at #1

For the weekend of Sept 28-30.

1.  Hotel Transylvania - $43 million - 1 wk (Sony)
 . . . 3349 screens / $12,840 per screen
2.  Looper - $21.2 - 1 wk (TriS)
 . . . 2992 / $7086
3.  End of Watch - $8 ($26.17) - 2 wks (OR) -39.2%
 . . . 2780 / $2878
4.  Trouble with the Curve - $7.53 ($23.73) - 2 wks (WB) -38.1%
 . . . 3212 / $2344
5.  House at the End of the Street - $7.15 ($22.23) - 2 wks (Rel) -41.8%
 . . . 3083 / $2320
6.  Pitch Perfect - $5.2 - 1 wk (U)
 . . . 335 / $15,522
7.  Finding Nemo 3D - $4.07 ($36.48) - 3 wks (BV) -57.8%
 . . . 2639 / $1541
8.  Resident Evil: Retribution - $3 ($38.7) - 3 wks (SG) -55.2%
 . . . 2381 / $1260
9.  The Master - $2.75 ($9.63) - 3 wks (Wein) -37.5%
 . . . 856 / $3207
10. Won't Back Down - $2.7 - 1 wk (Fox)
 . . . 2515 / $1074
11. Dredd - $2.28 ($10.87) - 2 wks (LG) -63.7%
 . . . 2557 / $892
12. The Possession - $1.44 ($47.49) - 5 wks (LG) -45.5%
 . . . 1618 / $891
13. The Perks of Being a Wallflower - $1.14 ($1.46) - 2 wks (Sum) +398%
 . . . 102 / $11,147

Hotel Transylvania set box-office opening records for September, and for Sony Animation, whose previous largest success was Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.  It's also the second-highest opening of an Adam Sandler movie, if you're counting voicework.

Meanwhile, Looper had a respectable opening in its own right.  It's the first wide-release for director Rian Johnson (Brick), and the best opening to date for Joseph Gordon-Levitt as a name-above-the-title guy. (I'd argue it helps to have prominent roles in Christopher Nolan movies leading up to it, but he's been a star waiting to happen for a while now.)

The take-back-our-school true-story drama Won't Back Down couldn't capitalize on two-time Oscar nominee Viola Davis.  Maybe because this opened right after school's started, its target audience (moms) didn't show up.

Pitch Perfect, which looks like Anna Kendrick in Glee Goes to College, had the perfect release strategy.  On only 335 screens, true believers had to hunt it down, and it bodes well for it opening wide next week opposite Frankenweenie and Taken 2.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower, starring Logan Lerman (Percy Jackson) and Emma Watson (Hermione Granger), continues to do well as it expands.