RIDDICK BIG, BUT SPANISH-LANGUAGE FLICK IS GIGANTE

It didn’t come close to collecting the $30 million that some box-office pundits thought it would, but Universal’s Riddick, starring Vin Diesel, did make it to around $18.7 million, about what the studio said it had expected. It also opened in 22 overseas markets with an additional $7.4 million. But the real success story of the weekend was writ by the Spanish-language comedy Instructions Not Included, which raked in an estimated $8.1 million after expanding from 347 screens last weekend to 717 — putting its per-theater average at $11,300, by far the best of any film in wide release and enough to put it in third place on the box-office tally. It was edged out by the fourth week of the Weinstein Company’s Lee Daniels’ The Butler, with about $8.9 million. The drama, starring Forest Whitaker and Oprah Winfrey, which fell 40 percent from a week ago, has now grossed $91.9 million and is on track to cross the $100-million mark by this time next week. Meanwhile, Warner Bros.’ We’re the Millers continued to pile up strong ticket sales in its fifth week, winding up with around $7.9 million and bringing its gross to an impressive $123.8 million. Rounding out the top five was Disney’s Planes, which collected $4.2 million, putting its five-week total earnings at $79.2 million. Although the weekend after Labor Day is traditionally the slowest weekend of the year, this year turned out to be an exception, with ticket sales up more than 26 percent from the same weekend a year ago.

The top ten films for the weekend, according to studio estimates compiled by Box Office Mojo:
1. Riddick, $18.7 million; 2. Lee Daniels’ The Butler, $8.9 million; 3. Instructions Not Included, $8.1 million; 4. We’re the Millers, $7.9 million; 5. Planes, $4.3 million; 6. One Direction: This Is Us, $4.1 million; 7. Elysium, $3.1 million; 8. Blue Jasmine, $2.7 million; 9. Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters, $2.5 million; 10. The World’s End, $2.3 million.