The Social Network Friended at Box Office

David Fincher film on Facebook founding dominates weekend with estimated $23 mil gross

Yes, the Facebook movie was well-"Liked."

David Fincher's The Social Network dominated the weekend box office with a $23 million opening, per estimates.

More results:

PHOTOS: Totally New Releases

• We know it's totally unusual for kids to dig Facebook, and stuff, but the exit polling doesn't lie: Kids under 18 liked The Social Network (a bit more) more than adults, assigning the movie an A-minus to the oldsters' B-plus. Both grades bode well for the $40 million film's box-office future.

• Among all-time fall-drama openers, The Social Network is in the neighborhood of The Town, and even more desirous, The Departed.   

• Given his film's success, writer Aaron Sorkin is due for a Facebook update. And shouldn't Justin Timberlake be tweeting about his first No. 1 movie? (He wasn't the last time we checked.)

• Renee Zellweger's Case 39 sat on the shelf for two-plus years, but didn't age well: It was DOA with a $5.4 million debut. It was the same sad story (minus the shelf-sitting) for the other new wide-release Halloween entry, Let Me In ($5.3 million).

• Wanna see something really scary? Nikki Reed's Chain Letter opened at 406 theaters, and made just $130,000. That's a per-screen average of $320. The horror, indeed. 

• Last weekend's No. 1 film, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps ($10.1 million; $30 million overall), held well, actually very well, considering The Social Network was out to steal its fall-drama mojo. 

• Go figure: The owl movie has legs. Despite an unimpressive start, the 3D-animated Legend of the Guardians ($10.9 million; $30 million overall) hung onto second place.

• A moment of silence for Inception ($870,000), which departed the Top 10 after 11 weekends and $288.4 million overall, good for fifth place among the year's top domestic grossers. Worldwide, the film has been an even bigger dream, grossing some $775 million, per Box Office Mojo stats. 

• The nice Top 10 run of Takers ($800,000) is over, too. After six weekends, the $32 million crime drama is at $56.2 million overall.

• Here's something that could be fodder for the next Freakonomics book: Why didn't the Freakonomics documentary do better at the box office? (Did the pay-what-you-want plan, instituted at the sneaks, carry through to this weekend?) Debuting at 20 theaters, the film averaged only $1,500, for a grand sum of $30,000.

Here's a complete look at the weekend's top-grossing films, per Friday-Sunday estimates compiled by Exhibitor Relations:

1. The Social Network, $23 million
2. Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole, $10.9 million
3. Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, $10.1 million
4. The Town, $10 million
5. Easy A, $7 million
6. You Again, $5.6 million
7. Case 39, $5.4 million
8. Let Me In, $5.3 million
9. Devil, $3.7 million
10. Alpha and Omega, $3 million