Weekend Top 10
| # | Title | DATE | % Chg. | Theaters | Weeks | AVG | Total | Distributor |
| 1 | 21 | $15.1M | -37.4 | 2.653 | 2 | 5.691 | $46.6M | Sony |
| 2 | Leatherheads | $13.5M | — | 2,769 | 1 | 4,869 | $13.5M | Universal |
| 3 | Nim’s Island | $13.3M | — | 3,513 | 1 | 3,785 | $13.3M | Fox |
| 4 | Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who! | $9.1M | -48.7 | 3,571 | 4 | 2,548 | $131.1M | Fox |
| 5 | The Ruins | $7.8M | — | 2,812 | 1 | 2,788 | $7.8M | Paramount / Dreamworks |
| 6 | Superhero Movie | $5.4M |
-43.2 |
2,965 | 2 | 1,822 | $16.9M | MGM / Weinstein |
| 7 | Tyler Perry’s Meet the Browns | $3.5M | -53.1 | 1,554 | 2 | 2,258 | $37.8M | Lionsgate |
| 8 | Drillbit Taylor | $3.5M | -38.8 | 2,707 | 3 | 1,291 | $25.6M | Paramount |
| 9 | Shutter | $2.9M | -44.9 | 2,125 | 3 | 1,352 | $23.1M | Fox |
| 10 | 10,000 B.C. | $2.8M | -44.0 | 2,335 | 5 | 1,186 | $89.3M | Warner Bros. |
Well, well, well, Mr. Clooney. Perhaps you can take a little swagger out of your step,
walking around like you got the key to the city dangling between your legs – in
your pockets, I mean. Seriously
though, I love the guy. (Please
don’t have me banished, George). I’m just surprised to see his latest directorial effort, Leatherheads, opening in second place behind the mundane, I
mean, two-time box office champ, 21. The film was expected to open in first
with mediocre returns but it almost had to settle for third place behind the
Jodie Foster/Abigail Breslin kiddie adventure flick, Nim’s Island. Wedged
between a crappy card movie and an island adventure, that’s got to hurt. Don’t fret, George, at least your
reviews were glowing … What? They
aren’t at all? Oh, nevermind. There, there, George. You still have the Coen’s.
The rest of the Top 10 was just as uninspired. The highest per screen average among
the elite belongs to the champ, 21,
which did hold up nicely in its second week. However, there were much more impressive per screen returns
further down the chart. Two
specialty titles had spectacular openings. The first is Wong Kar Wai’s first English language feature, My
Blueberry Nights. The Cannes favorite bowed on six
screens and pulled in a per screen of $12, 283 for a total of over $73K. This return falls just shy of the
opening weekend take for his most celebrated feature, In the Mood for
Love. Reviews for Blueberry have been mixed so a successful future remains shaky.
The largest per screen take amongst all releases belongs to
IFC’s The Flight of the Red Balloon. This co-production between France and
Taiwan opened on just two screens and pulled a stellar $18, 600 per screen for
a total of $37K. Like Wong Kar
Wai’s film, critical reaction to Red Balloon has been mixed so it too will need strong word of
mouth in order to sustain its altitude.
First there was Hannah Montana and then came U2. Now, another major band has made their
effort to continue the trend of bringing live musical performances to the big
screen, the biggest screen in fact – IMAX. Rock & roll granddaddies, The Rolling Stones, have not
only been immortalized on screen but they have been immortalized on screen by
Mr. Martin Scorsese. His follow-up
to the Academy Award winner for Best Picture, The Departed, is entitled Shine a Light and this week, it debuts in 15th place
with $1.5 million. This amounts to
a per screen average of a solid but not impressive $5,474 from 276
screens. Seeing as how most event
pictures like this one draw the biggest fans in the first weekend, it would
appear that Rolling Stones fans may be dying off at a quicker rate than we
thought.
Next Week: Keanu Reeves hits the streets, gangsta-style, in Street
Kings and Sony counters with the prom
horror film that was desperately waiting to be made, Prom Night. Thankfully
for those of us who don’t mind using a tiny bit of our brains at the movies,
Ellen Page returns in her first post-Juno outing, Smart People.
