"Elysium" starring Matt Damon and Jodie Foster took an estimated $30.5 million and beat out Jennifer Aniston's and Jason Sudeikis' comedy "We're the Millers" ($26.5 million) over the weekend according to movies.yahoo.com.
"We're very happy to be in the Neill Blompkamp business," Sony's head of distribution Rory Bruer told TheWrap about being able to work with the director on the film.
Bruer said production is confident the action movie will do well when it makes its debut throughout most of Europe and Australia next week. Latin America will follow the week after Yahoo Movies reported.
"Elysium" was Blomkamp's sequel to his initial film in 2009 entitled "District 9," the "surprise sci-fi hit" Yahoo Movies reported. According to Yahoo Movies, "Elysium" recorded a record for the month of August bringing in $4.9 million, which was shown in a total of 3,284 theaters, more than "We're the Millers," which was played in 3,260 places, and "Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters" but not as much as "Planes" which totaled 3,702.
"Planes" finished the weekend at $22.5 million. "Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters" came in fourth at $14.6 which ultimately gave it $23.5 million since it opened Wednesday.
"Elysium" had $115 million of its worldwide rights funded by Sony versus $30 million for "District 9" which took in $210 million on a global scale Yahoo Movies reported. While Yahoo movies reports movies shown in multi-plex theaters may have kept top films from obtaining a higher gross amount, the overall box office number was up five percent from what it was this time last year.
61 percent of males viewed "Elysium and 52 percent of the people who saw the movie were under 30 according to Yahoo Movies.
