&lt;div class=&quot;track&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; src=&quot;http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.22.2/23716?ns=guardian&amp;pageName=Real+Steel+must+prove+its+mettle+at+the+US+box+office%3AArticle%3A1645308&amp;ch=Film&amp;c3=GU.co.uk&amp;c4=Action+and+adventure+%28Film+genre%29%2CScience+fiction+and+fantasy+%28Film+genre%29%2CHugh+Jackman+%28Film%29%2CFilm%2CCulture%2CFilm+industry+%28business%29&amp;c5=Not+commercially+useful%2CFilm+Reviews&amp;c6=Jeremy+Kay&amp;c7=11-Oct-10&amp;c8=1645308&amp;c9=Article&amp;c10=Blogpost&amp;c11=Film&amp;c13=Hollywood+report+%28series%29&amp;c25=Film+blog&amp;c30=content&amp;h2=GU%2FFilm%2FAction+and+adventure&quot; width=&quot;1&quot; height=&quot;1&quot; /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;standfirst&quot;&gt;It put up a brave fight during its opening weekend, but is DreamWorks&#039; film about robot boxing punching above its weight?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;DreamWorks needed a hit after Cowboys &amp; Aliens and Fright Night stumbled in the summer, and it didn&#039;t necessarily get it over the weekend despite the No 1 launch of Real Steel. The $27.3m estimate was good enough to rule but this was another frail weekend and considering how much the movie must have cost (Hugh Jackman and all those robots don&#039;t come cheap), nobody at DreamWorks will breathe easily until we see how the movie fares in the coming weeks.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;According to Deadline Hollywood, Real Steel needs to make at least $125m in North America &quot;to keep Reliance&#039;s funding on track&quot;. This refers to the Indian corporate giant that stumped up half the capital to finance the reconstituted DreamWorks a couple of years ago. As Deadline and other outlets have recently reported, CEO Stacy Snider has said the partnership with Reliance is strong, but they must be wondering what&#039;s happened. Only The Help has been a bona fide hit from DreamWorks&#039; initial slate, earning more than $162m so far in North America.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;George Clooney&#039;s political thriller The Ides of March debuted in second place on an underwhelming $10.4m. The movie received mixed reviews after opening in Venice and screening in Toronto last month and Sony is positioning it as an Oscar contender. It was financed by Cross Creek Pictures run by Brian Oliver, whose money comes from a consortium of wealthy oil and gas magnates, and is looking to replicate the success of the first movie it backed, Black Swan. It won&#039;t get close to the Swan, but Cross Creek has plenty of other movies in the pipeline, including Rush, the Formula 1 drama charting the rivalry between James Hunt and Niki Lauda based on a script by Peter Morgan. Universal holds US rights and is eyeing a 2012 release.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Warner Bros&#039; Dolphin Tale fell from No 1 to No 3 but on $49m it&#039;s already well in profit and can expect a strong life on ancillary platforms such as DVD, cable and VoD. Good to see Moneyball sticking around, which is proof at least that the cream rises (close) to the top. It reportedly cost around $50m to make and has grossed $49.3m after three weekends in release. Sony will push it for awards so we can expect that figure to go up in the coming months.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Abduction, starring Twilight&#039;s Taylor Lautner, is fading fast and ranks 10th on $23m after three weekends. Not bad for a movie that reportedly cost $35m to make, but Lionsgate would have liked to make more of a splash with the kid, as would most of Hollywood. Lautner has projects set up all over town but let&#039;s reserve judgment on his leading man credentials until another one comes out. Critics didn&#039;t like Abduction much and clearly it hasn&#039;t set the box office alight, so the movie&#039;s lacklustre performance shouldn&#039;t fall solely on Lautner.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Two indie movies worth tracking are experiencing differing fortunes. Nicolas Winding Refn&#039;s memorable Drive earned rave reviews and after four weekends has grossed around $30m through FilmDistrict, roughly double what it cost. Killer Elite, the action flick with Jason Statham and Clive Owen, is about to stall after the second weekend. It added a little more than $2m for a $22m running total and cost around $70m to make.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;While that&#039;s not such good news for Open Road Films, the new US distributor made up of indie veteran Tom Ortenberg and cinema chains Regal and AMC, Killer Elite&#039;s Australian financier Omnilab Media should be OK. It mitigated its exposure by cutting deals with international distributors through LA-based sales agent Inferno Entertainment, before the movie even got made. Pre-sales are a critical part of the indie financing mechanism that helps offset the risk. That&#039;s why the movie premiered in Toronto last month. People were scratching their heads to work out why the festival&#039;s programmers let it in: I suspect they did so partly because they were hoping for a fun action thriller with big names and partly to let international buyers see for the first time what they&#039;d bought.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Next weekend&#039;s new releases are Paramount&#039;s remake of Footloose, Universal&#039;s remake of The Thing and Fox&#039;s Jack Black/Steve Martin/Owen Wilson comedy The Big Year.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;North American top 10, 7-9 October 2011&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;1 Real Steel, $27.3m&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;2 The Ides of March, $10.4m&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;3 Dolphin Tale, $9.2m. Total: $49.1m&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;4 Moneyball, $7.5m. Total: $49.3m&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;5 50/50, $5.5m. Total: $17.3m&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;6 Courageous, $4.6m. Total: $15.9m&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;7 The Lion King (in 3D), $4.6m. Total: $85.9m&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;8 Dream House, $4.5m. Total: $14.5m&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;9 What&#039;s Your Number? $3.1m. Total: $10.3m&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;10 Abduction, $2.9m. Total: $23.4m&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;related&quot; style=&quot;float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;&quot;&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/actionandadventure&quot;&gt;Action and adventure&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/sciencefictionandfantasy&quot;&gt;Science fiction and fantasy&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/hugh-jackman&quot;&gt;Hugh Jackman&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/film-industry&quot;&gt;Film industry&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;author&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/jeremykay&quot;&gt;Jeremy Kay&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;terms&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk&quot;&gt;guardian.co.uk&lt;/a&gt; &amp;copy; 2011 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. 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