Weekend Roundup: '21' Is Aces Again

By Katey Rich

In retrospect, it's hard to imagine how anyone had such high expectations for a modern-day screwball comedy all about men wearing silly leather bonnets. Leatherheads was expected to be the champion this weekend, but it was the primary victim of a slow box office period, coming in at #2 with a mere $13.5 million. The spoiler was 21, which held on to its #1 spot by dropping only 40% from last week, taking in an additional $15 million.

Clooney and company were virtually tied with the adventure fantasy Nim's Island, which, depending on whose numbers you read, may have actually come out ahead of Leatherheads. BoxOfficeMojo.com had Nim's numbers at $13.3, substantially better than expectations.

The weekend's other major new release, The Ruins, did OK for itself as well, coming in at #5 with $7.8 million. Hopes that it would be a little better than the average throwaway horror movie didn't exactly pan out, so this is probably the last we'll hear of this one.

The 800-pound gorilla of the moment, Horton Hears A Who!, is holding on well enough, coming in at #4 this time with $9.1 million. Its total is now at a remarkable $131 million, and it will probably stay the highest-grossing movie of the year for a few more weeks until Iron Man, Speed Racer and their fellow blockbusters hit us in May.

In the rest of the top 10, everything stayed in pretty much the same order as last week. Superhero Movie continues underperforming, coming up with only $5 million and a #6 spot. Meet the Browns is also a modest success by Tyler Perry standards, and it added another $3.5 million to its $37 million total. Granted, it's a far bigger hit than Drillbit Taylor, another release from a producer who's usually guaranteed success; Drillbit came in at #8 over the weekend with $3.5 million, and is shedding theatres quickly. Rounding out the top 10 were horror movie Shutter ($2.8 million) and finally the irrepressible 10,000 B.C. ($2.7 million). Stop-Loss, the Iraq war drama, was knocked out of the top 10 altogether, and will probably be marked down as yet another war movie no one wanted to see.

After the jump is Box Office Mojo's top ten. Boomer bait Shine a Light hit pretty well on IMAX screens, with a $5,474 per-theatre average that topped everything except 21. Under the Same Moon, on the other hand, doesn't seem to be shaping up as the hit the Weinsteins were pushing it to be-- it continues falling in revenue even as its adds theatres. And, somehow, Vantage Point is still playing on over 1,000 theatres, and made $1 million over the weekend while doing it. Dennis Quaid, you truly are America's sweetheart!

TW	LW	Title (click to view)	Studio	Weekend Gross	% Change	Theater Count / Change		Average	Total Gross	Budget*	Week #
1	1	21	Sony	$15,100,000	-37.4%	2,653	+5	$5,691	$46,533,000	$35	2
2	N	Leatherheads	Uni.	$13,485,000	-	2,769	-	$4,869	$13,485,000	$58	1
3	N	Nim's Island	Fox	$13,300,000	-	3,513	-	$3,785	$13,300,000	$37	1
4	2	Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who!	Fox	$9,100,000	-48.7%	3,571	-255	$2,548	$131,060,000	$85	4
5	N	The Ruins	P/DW	$7,840,000	-	2,812	-	$2,788	$7,840,000	-	1
6	3	Superhero Movie	MGM/W	$5,405,000	-43.2%	2,965	+5	$1,822	$16,887,000	-	2
7	4	Tyler Perry's Meet the Browns	LGF	$3,510,000	-53.1%	1,554	-462	$2,258	$37,754,000	-	3
8	5	Drillbit Taylor	Par.	$3,495,000	-38.8%	2,707	-354	$1,291	$25,579,000	-	3
9	6	Shutter	Fox	$2,875,000	-44.9%	2,125	-631	$1,352	$23,183,000	-	3
10	7	10,000 B.C.	WB	$2,770,000	-44.0%	2,335	-720	$1,186	$89,323,000	$105	5
11	8	Stop-Loss	Par.	$2,314,000	-49.2%	1,294	+3	$1,788	$8,213,000	$25	2
12	14	Under the Same Moon	Wein.	$1,709,000	-24.0%	437	+47	$3,910	$8,938,000	-	3
13	9	College Road Trip	BV	$1,667,000	-51.8%	1,705	-565	$977	$40,885,000	-	5
14	10	The Bank Job	LGF	$1,640,000	-41.0%	1,189	-416	$1,379	$26,732,000	-	5
15	N	Shine a Light	ParV	$1,511,000	-	276	-	$5,474	$1,511,000	-	1
16	12	Run Fat Boy Run	PicH	$1,401,000	-40.1%	1,115	-18	$1,256	$4,463,000	$10	2
17	11	Never Back Down	Sum.	$1,106,000	-53.1%	1,209	-660	$914	$23,068,000	$20	4
18	13	Vantage Point	Sony	$1,075,000	-53.3%	1,128	-611	$953	$71,028,000	$40	7
19	16	Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day	Focus	$731,000	-36.5%	503	-13	$1,453	$10,534,000	-	5
20	15	The Other Boleyn Girl	Sony	$600,000	-52.8%	706	-413	$849	$26,056,000	$35	6