Weekend Roundup: Like A Herd of Mastodons

By Katey Rich

When you're a big epic with CGI mastodons, neither bad reviews nor a lack of stars can hold you back. That's how 10,000 B.C. landed at #1 in the box office this weekend, with brute force behind it if nothing else. It racked up $35 million, over twice what its nearest competitor, fellow new release College Road Trip, could muster. The Martin Lawrence comedy also had half B.C.'s per-theatre average, earning $5,000 per theatre for a total of $13 million.

The two other major new releases of the weekend opened on far smaller scales, to mixed results. The Bank Job landed at #5, with a weak per-theatre average that netted $5 million. And Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day couldn't quite make the top 10, but landed at #11 with a respectable $2.5 million.

Back in the top 10, Vantage Point continued demonstrating its surprising legs, coming in at #3 with $7.5 million. It handily beat last weekend's #1, Semi-Pro, which underperformed once again by coming in at #4 with $5.9 million. That brings the comedy's take over two weekends to $24 million, a figure most analysts expected it to reach easily in its opening weekend.

The rest of the top 10 fell in line precisely the way it did the previous weekend, but shifted down three spots. Last week's #3 The Spiderwick Chronicles landed at #6 ($4.8 million), followed by The Other Boleyn Girl  at #7 ($4 million), Jumper at #8 ($3.7 million), Step Up 2 The Streets at #9 ($3 million) and Fool's Gold at #10 ($2.8 million). No real surprises, no real changes. It's pretty slow going at the box office for the time being.

After the jump is the full top 20, courtesy of Box Office Mojo. Notice that Juno seems to have fallen out of the top 10 once and for all, joined by No Country for Old Men, which had its last hurrah last weekend and will soon start its long, long life on DVD. Definitely, Maybe and Be Kind Rewind still can't catch a break, and seem in danger of slipping entirely off the radar before much of anyone had a chance to see them. And people are still seeing The Bucket List; I'm starting to wonder when there will finally come a time that I don't have to include that sentence in these roundups.

TW	LW	Title (click to view)	Studio	Weekend Gross	% Change	Theater Count / Change		Average	Total Gross	Budget*	Week #
1	N	10,000 B.C.	WB	$35,730,000	-	3,410	-	$10,478	$35,730,000	$105	1
2	N	College Road Trip	BV	$14,000,000	-	2,706	-	$5,173	$14,000,000	-	1
3	2	Vantage Point	Sony	$7,500,000	-41.5%	3,163	+13	$2,371	$51,681,000	$40	3
4	1	Semi-Pro	NL	$5,900,000	-60.9%	3,121	-	$1,890	$24,835,000	-	2
5	N	The Bank Job	LGF	$5,710,000	-	1,603	-	$3,562	$5,710,000	-	1
6	3	The Spiderwick Chronicles	Par.	$4,800,000	-44.8%	3,246	-408	$1,478	$61,721,000	$90	4
7	4	The Other Boleyn Girl	Sony	$4,000,000	-51.2%	1,167	+1	$3,427	$14,612,000	-	2
8	5	Jumper	Fox	$3,750,000	-50.5%	2,563	-565	$1,463	$72,537,000	$85	4
9	6	Step Up 2 the Streets	BV	$3,049,000	-46.9%	2,251	-277	$1,354	$53,004,000	-	4
10	7	Fool's Gold	WB	$2,800,000	-36.6%	2,322	-523	$1,205	$62,820,000	-	5
11	N	Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day	Focus	$2,541,000	-	535	-	$4,749	$2,541,000	-	1
12	9	Penelope	Sum.	$2,205,000	-42.0%	1,207	+11	$1,826	$6,854,000	-	2
13	11	Juno	FoxS	$2,000,000	-38.7%	1,350	-281	$1,481	$137,969,000	-	14
14	10	Definitely, Maybe	Uni.	$1,719,000	-49.2%	1,556	-633	$1,104	$29,411,000	-	4
15	8	No Country for Old Men	Mira.	$1,601,000	-61.1%	1,201	-836	$1,333	$72,659,000	-	18
16	12	Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins	Uni.	$1,150,000	-56.5%	954	-439	$1,205	$40,802,000	$35	5
17	13	Be Kind, Rewind	NL	$1,130,000	-45.9%	746	-64	$1,514	$8,900,000	-	3
18	14	The Bucket List	WB	$1,025,000	-39.5%	1,040	-525	$985	$89,217,000	$45	11
19	15	There Will Be Blood	ParV	$686,000	-55.7%	643	-605	$1,066	$38,777,000	$25	11
20	21	In Bruges	Focus	$539,000	-30.5%	225	-7	$2,395	$4,569,000	-	5