Box Office: One Direction: This Is Us Takes Down The Butler's Reign

Christie Goodwin/Sony Pictures

Moviegoers couldn't seem to get enough of One Direction this weekend.

Morgan Spurlock's documentary about the British boy band took the top spot at this weekend's box office, landing at No. 1 with $17 million. 

Anne Marie Fox © 2013 The Weinstein Company

Although the film ended the Butler's No. 1 reign, Lee Daniels' drama still continued to fare well, raking in $14.7 million at No. 2. We're the Millers also managed to stay near the top of the box office, following The Butler at $12.6 million.

As for this weekend's surprise hits, comedian Eugenio Derbez's dramedy Instructions Not Included also won big during the holiday weekend, nabbing $7.5 million and grabbing the fifth spot.

Not such a winner was Ethan Hawke and Selena Gomez's thriller flick, Getaway, which only earned $4.7 million.

Here's a complete look at the weekend's top movies, per Friday-Sunday studio estimates and stats as compiled per Box Office Mojo:

Warner Bros. Pictures

Here's a complete look at the weekend's top movies, per Friday-Sunday studio estimates and stats as compiled per Box Office Mojo:

1. One Direction: This is Us, $17 million

2. Lee Daniels' The Butler, $14.7 million

3. We're the Millers, $12.6 million

4. Planes, $7.7 million

5. Instructions Not Included, $7.5 million

6. Elysium: $6.3 million

7. The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones, $5.2 million

8. The World's End, $4.8 million

9. Getaway, $4.5 million

10. Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters, $4.4 million

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'One Direction: This Is Us' Scores $2.7 Million Thursday Debut

When the story of 2013 as a movie year is written, it will surely include the fact that the once-rare advance-night showings become all-but required. And yet again this weekend we have at least one movie that had enough anticipation among its fan-base to justify early sneak-peaks.  The Morgan Spurlock-directed concert documentary One Direction: This Is Us earned a decent $2.7 million from Thursday night showings.  The film began screening for the general public at 7:00pm, with Sony realizing that the core young female audience couldn’t be up too late on a school night, and continued pretty consistently up until the usual midnight screenings. Fun fact: Apparently 98% of online ticket purchases were from females, with 2% for dads, boyfriends, young gay males, and male film critics.

Barring various variables (frenzied anticipation, heavily-marketed sequels, etc.), most films these days do over/under 5% of their weekend business in advance-night showings.  If we go by the standard multiplier, then One Direction: This Is Us does about $54 million for the weekend, which would be genuinely astonishing, as the biggest-grossing concert documentary ever isJustin Beiber: Never Say Never which earned $73 million domestic total. For comparison, Michael Jackson: This Is It earned $72m while Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds earned $65m on fewer than 700 screens. So yeah, let’s presume some serious front-loading is at work here. But how much front-loading is the big question, and frankly at this point it’s guess work. Let’s presume for a moment that 10% of the weekend audience saw the One Direction documentary last night, which would give the film a still impressive $27 million for the weekend.

For the record, the top Labor Day Fri-Mon debut weekend is Rob Zombie’sHalloween remake back in 2007 with $30 million, after which it falls all the way down to the $21 million debut of The Possession last year and the $20 million debut of The Transporter 2 back in 2005. Even a Hunger Games-eqsue front-loaded weekend of 13% gives the film $20 million for the weekend, which still gives it more than the $19 million total domestic gross ofJonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience and within a hair of the $25 million total for Katy Perry: Part of Me. As you can see, and as we’ll discuss more over the weekend, the relatively recent concert documentary sub-genre is a feast or famine situation.  You either rise to the top like Justin Beiber or crash to earth like the cast of Glee ($11.8 million total for Glee: The 3D Concert Movie).

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