Even though the Academy Award nominations were announced, moviegoers continued to love awful looking crap at the box office this week. With a really surprising hold, “Paul Blart: Mall Cop” finished at number one for the second straight weekend, pulling in $21.5 million to bring it’s total to $64.8 million, which really isn’t bad for something that looked like a straight to video enterprise. It’s now become that movie your obnoxious uncle will joke about to you, stunned that you never saw it. Coming in at second was new release “Underworld: Rise Of The Lycans”: without the “star power” of Kate Beckinsale, the debut comes under the originals $21.7 million and the sequel’s $26.9 million opening numbers. Looks like Sci-Fi Channel’s the way to go for “Underworld IV: The War After The Other War From That Battle.” Postponed Brendan Fraser fantasy “Inkheart” stalled in its debut at #7 with $7.7 million, but its one of the remnants of the now-defunct New Line Cinema and didn’t get much of a push.
There were some Oscar bumps, notably by the week’s big story “Slumdog Millionaire,” which jumped into the #5 slot with $10.6 million, an 80% increase in business thanks to a well-timed wide-ish release (why so bullish, Searchlight?). “The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button” also clocked back into the top ten at #9 with $6.0 million in its quixotic quest to turn a profit. “The Wrestler” (#14), “Frost/Nixon” (#15) and “The Reader” (#20) also received bumps in business, but without werewolves, vampires or malls, they couldn’t crack the top 20.
Meanwhile, Clint Eastwood continues to do crazy geezer biz. “Gran Torino” held strongly at #3 with $16 million. Viewers don’t seem to care about the awards since “Torino,” which was snubbed in all major categories, is currently at $97 million, and will easily become Clint’s highest grossing directorial effort. At #4, “Hotel For Dogs” was probably a cheapie, and considering the studio dumped it in January, the fact that it looks like it will have enough legs to maybe get to $80 million is a big win for Paramount. Again- Americans love dog movies. While “Hotel” was a strong highlight from last weekend’s healthy debuts, its competitors weren’t so lucky, with “My Bloody Valentine 3D” dropping to #6 and losing more than half of its audience, while top-heavy “Notorious” took a 72% tumble to land at #10 with $5.7 million. And oh, hey “Outlander”- the Weinstein’s new Jim Caviezel-starrer opened on 81 screens, but not enough people were persuaded by Jesus fighting space Vikings, as it debuted with a $600 per theater average and one of the year’s worst debuts for a medium-level studio film at #37.
1. Paul Blart: Capital Punishment- $21.5 million
2. Underworld: Revenge of The Colon- $20.7 million
3. Gran Torino- $16 million
4. Hotel Rwanda For Dogs- $12.4 million
5. Slumdog Millionaire- $10.6 million
6. My Bloody Valentine 3D- $10.1 million
7. Inkheart- $7.7 million
8. Bride Wars Episode One: A New Hope- $7 million
9. Brad Pitt Does Oldface- $6 million
10. Notorious- $5.7 million
