They may be British and they may have been booed in the recently concluded MTV Video Music Awards because of it but Britain’s current fab-five, One Direction, are making big waves in US cinemas with their concert documentary entitled One Direction: This Is Us.

Hitting It Big

It seems it is not only the UK that has been gripped with the One Direction fever after it premiered in Leicester Square in London last August 20th to about 70,000 screaming and adoring fans. Liam, Niall, Zayn, Louis and Harry have swooning US teens as well since their movie, which was produced and distributed under Sony, in the country’s theater is hitting it big – garnering $8.9 million on its opening day last Friday. Movie people are also expecting it to reach sales over $20 million come Labor Day.

Based on local reception, One Direction: This Is Us actually comes par with a similar project from Michael Jackson, Michael Jackson: This Is It, released in 2009 which turned into the world box office’s highest earning concert documentary ever recorded. The King of Pop’s film was also produced and released by Sony. However, it is still too early to say if One Direction’s documentary will surpass Jackson’s docu-film given that there are still global openings and sales to consider.

In Second Place

Lee Daniels’ The Butler, which is a take on the life of previous White House butler Eugene Allen who served under the administrations of eight American presidents, earned the second spot in movie sales with $3.6 million last Friday and is expected to top $20 million over the Labor Day weekend. Even after a week since its theater opening, the biopic which starred Forest Whitaker and Oprah Winfrey and is distributed by Weinstein Company, has managed to come up strong with just a 24% over-the-week viewer drop.  The movie has come up with $62.9 million earnings since its opening.

And Then…the Other Movies

With One Direction’s movie and the biopic on top, the limelight staled for the other movies which recently opened and are set to compete with the two for the long weekend sales. Warner Brothers’ action Getaway, with Ethan Hawke and Selena Gomez in the main roles, starts with $1.4 million on its opening day last Friday. It is also expected to earn only $5 million over the weekend. On the other hand, international thriller Closed Circuit featuring Eric Bana, Rebecca Hall and Julia Styles in the lead, which opened last Wednesday, August 28, is expected to garner around $4 million over its first week.

On a lighter note, the dramedy, Instructions Not Included, earned slightly higher sales than Getaway and Closed Circuit with earnings expected to reach close to $8 million for its first four days considering that its distribution is limited to only 347 locations. This might be due to its appeal to Latino audiences since the movie stars Mexican comedian Eugenio Derbez in the lead and its distributor is the ethnic-targeting Pantelion.