CORRECTION: Stan Helsing Downgraded From Historic Flop to Regular Flop

It's always hard to agree exactly what constitutes a flop, particularly those of the historic variety -- the ones that will join Heaven's Gate, Ishtar, Gigli and the beloved, DOA Delgo. You can't even really count this year's notorious Land of the Lost -- which ultimately grossed back half its $100 million budget in the U.S. alone -- among their ranks. Thankfully, the weekend yielded an under-promoted, limited-release, unequivocal catastrophe for the ages seasonal slouch [see update after the jump]. And no, it wasn't Amelia (though she was pretty close).

According to the only box-office estimate available for the Stan Helsing, the long-shelved horror spoof pulled in around $2,200 on 30 screens -- amounting to a per-theater-average of $73.33. (I'd hate to skimp on the 33 cents in a time like this.) Records are sketchy on releases this small, but I'm fairly confident that would amount to the single worst average of 2009. If the total lack of marketing on the week before Halloween isn't symbolic of the distributor's faith in the product, check out the film's DVD and Blu-Ray art, which was available before the movie even stumbled into theaters last Friday. And if you still don't buy the quality at hand here, how about a look at the trailer featuring Kenan Thompson in a Superman costume, an egregious pseudo-Chucky, and Leslie Nielsen slumming in drag? Unless schadenfreude is big in your office, I'd venture to say it's mildly NSFW. Congrats to all!

UPDATE (11:20 a.m.): There appears to have been a reporting error at our source. Director Bo Zenga himself reached out with the actual numbers: "The correct number is 2 screens which is a $1,100 per-screen average, as good or better than 21 of the 42 movies released this weekend including films released by the major studios. Also, it is factually incorrect to say the movie is 'long-shelved.' We finished principal photography a little over a year ago and completed post-production in July of this year." Great! So in closing, this $1,100 average lifts Stan Helsing to the elite company of Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas ($1,248 per screen) and Uma Thurman's Motherhood ($1,202 per screen) among last weekend's lowest-grossing openings. I regret the error.

· Weekend Estimates by Klady [The Hot Blog]