David Fincher’s THE SOCIAL NETWORK on Top for the Last Time?: Box Office

Armie Hammer, The Social Network

Featuring Jesse Eisenberg as Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, Andrew Garfield, Justin Timberlake, and Rooney Mara, David Fincher’s The Social Network topped the North American box office — in all likelihood for the last time — on Thursday, Oct. 7, with $1.82m according to figures found at Box Office Mojo.

Opening today are Randall Wallace’s Secretariat, starring Diane Lane and John Malkovich, and the Katherine Heigl-Josh Duhamel comedy Life As We Know It, neither of which is expected to gross more than $20m, but both of which are expected to gross more than The Social Network. Fincher’s widely acclaimed drama about the creation of Facebook debuted last week with $22.6m; according to expectations for this type of well-received adult drama, attendance should go down 35-50% this weekend.

If its drop-off rate is at the lower end, there’s certainly a chance that The Social Network will manage to beat at least one of the new entries.

At no. 2 on Thursday, Ben Affleck’s heist thriller The Town, featuring Affleck, Jeremy Renner, Jon Hamm, and Rebecca Hall, pulled in $772k.

At no. 3, Oliver Stone’s Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, starring Michael Douglas, Shia LaBeouf, Josh Brolin, Carey Mulligan, Susan Sarandon, and Eli Wallach, scored $726k.

Zack Snyder’s Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole brought in $568k at no. 4.

Next in line were the Emma Stone vehicle Easy A with $457k at no. 5 and the Kristen Bell-Jamie Lee Curtis-Odette Yusman-Sigourney Weaver comedy You Again with $414k at no. 6.

At no. 7, the Renée Zellweger vehicle Case 39 collected $353k, followed by Let Me In with $346k at no. 8.

Rounding out the top twelve were Milla Jovovich-Ali Larter-Wentworth Miller’s Resident Evil: Afterlife with $241k, the M. Night Shyamalan presentation Devil with $227k, the animated Alpha and Omega with $151k, Christopher Nolan-Leonardo DiCaprio’s Inception with $73k.

Among the top twelve movies, The Social Network had the highest per-theater average, $659. Alpha and Omega had the lowest, $66.

Also among the top twelve, seven movies posted minor attendance increases on Thursday; the other five posted minor attendance decreases.

Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps posted the highest Wednesday-to-Thursday drop-off rate, -9.1%. Alpha and Omega posted the biggest attendance increase, +13%.

Photo: The Social Network (Merrick Morton / Sony Pictures).