Weekend Box Office

Audiences Have an Appetite for ‘Dragon’

The return of Dr. Hannibal Lecter took a sizable bite out of the weekend box office as “Red Dragon” grossed $36.5 million to set a record for films bowing in October. The only other new movie in the top 10, “Jonah--A Veggie Tales Movie,” opened in sixth place, grossing a healthy $6.2 million on only 940 screens.

The impressively durable “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” has grossed $147.7 million, eclipsing the previous indie champ, “The Blair Witch Project,” which grossed $140.5 million.

*--* Movie Three-day Screens/ Average Weeks in Release (Studio) gross/ Total (millions) 1 “Red Dragon” $36.5 3,357 1 (Universal) $36.5 $10,885 2 “Sweet Home $21.3 3,303 2 Alabama” (Buena Vista) $65.3 $6,456 3 “The Tuxedo” $10.0 3,022 2 (DreamWorks) $28.0 $3,321 4 “My Big Fat $8.2 1,971 25 Greek Wedding” (IFC Films) $147.7 $4,172 5 “Barbershop” $6.6 2,176 4 (MGM) $60.0 $3,049 6 “Jonah--A $6.2 940 1 Veggie Tales Movie” (Artisan) $6.2 $6,597 7 “The Banger $3.5 2,532 3 Sisters” (Fox $24.3 $1,376 Searchlight) 8 “The Four $2.1 2,187 3 Feathers” (Paramount) $15.5 $941 9 “Moonlight Mile” $1.9 434 2 (Buena Vista) $2.3 $4,338 10 “One Hour Photo” $1.7 1,261 7 (Fox $28.8 $1,375 Searchlight) Source: Exhibitor Relations Co

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Opening in limited release were “Welcome to Collinwood” with $75,180; “Heaven” with $51,909 for a per-screen average of $12,977; and “Bloody Sunday” with $29,419, which gave it a robust per-screen average of $14,710 in New York.