By Katey Rich
The guarantee with a Will Ferrell comedy is generally that the teenage boys will come out to see it and the movie will open at #1, regardless of which buffoonish sports character Ferrell is playing that time around. But what happens when the comedy is rated R, prohibiting those teenage boys from packing the theatre? Luckily you still make it to #1, but not by much. Projected to bring in as much as $45 million, Semi-Pro managed only $15.3 million, Ferrell's lowest opening number in nearly 10 years. Poor New Line; Semi-Pro's miserable performance coincides with the news that they've been swallowed up by parent company Warner Bros.
Just below Semi-Pro, the deck from last week was shuffled only minimally, with last week's #1 Vantage Point coming in second ($13 million) and the still-strong The Spiderwick Chronicles following Vantage again at #3 ($8.7 million). Just to re-emphasize, the latest Will Ferrell comedy barely made more money than a week-old action thriller headlined by Dennis Quaid. Strange times indeed.
Two female-centric releases with nearly identical theatre counts found remarkably different fates. The Other Boleyn Girl, driven by inexplicably positive reviews, landed at #4 with $8.3 million. OK, maybe it was driven by the promise of Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johansson sharing tender, sisterly moments on screen. Penelope, on the other hand, only made it to #8, with half of Boleyn's take ($4 million). The inexplicably nasty reviews for that one may have hurt it, though for my money it was more entertaining than those squabbling Boleyns.
In-between those new releases came three holdovers in the same order as last week. Jumper is sticking around with surprising legs, landing at #5 with $7.6 million. Then there's Step Up 2 The Streets with $5.7 million, followed by that warm-weather escapist fantasy Fool's Gold, at #7 with $4.6 million.
Rounding out the top ten were two Oscar Best Picture nominees, and one winner. No Country for Old Men expanded to nearly 2,000 screens over the weekend to capitalize on its little gold man, and landed at #9 with $4 million for its trouble. That's its best weekend since its first wide expansion in November, and a good sign that an Oscar winner with tense action scenes can scare up an audience if you give it enough time. And finally, Juno may finally be ending its reign in the top 10; it came in at #10 with $3.3 million, and is shedding theatres after nearly three months of nonstop success. At $135 million total, not too shabby.
The full top 20 is below the jump, courtesy of Box Office Mojo. None of the weekend's other releases were wide enough to make it in, so it's all holdovers, including that pesky Hannah Montana. No one is seeing Be Kind Rewind, which breaks my heart, but enough are seeing Witless Protection to land it here, which breaks my heart even more. And seriously no one is seeing Charlie Bartlett; in only its second week of release, it scared up less than $1 million from over 1,000 theatres. There are some King Henry VIII-style cruel fates being handed out these days. Watch out, Anne Boleyn, you might be next!
| TW | LW | Title (click to view) | Studio | Weekend Gross | % Change | Theater Count / Change | Average | Total Gross | Budget* | Week # | |
| 1 | N | Semi-Pro | NL | $15,200,000 | - | 3,121 | - | $4,870 | $15,200,000 | - | 1 |
| 2 | 1 | Vantage Point | Sony | $13,000,000 | -43.2% | 3,150 | +1 | $4,126 | $41,005,000 | $40 | 2 |
| 3 | 2 | The Spiderwick Chronicles | Par. | $8,752,000 | -33.2% | 3,654 | -193 | $2,395 | $55,081,000 | $90 | 3 |
| 4 | N | The Other Boleyn Girl | Sony | $8,300,000 | - | 1,166 | - | $7,118 | $8,300,000 | - | 1 |
| 5 | 3 | Jumper | Fox | $7,600,000 | -40.2% | 3,128 | -302 | $2,429 | $66,823,000 | $85 | 3 |
| 6 | 4 | Step Up 2 the Streets | BV | $5,714,000 | -40.5% | 2,528 | +48 | $2,260 | $48,593,000 | - | 3 |
| 7 | 5 | Fool's Gold | WB | $4,690,000 | -28.4% | 2,845 | -230 | $1,648 | $59,073,000 | - | 4 |
| 8 | N | Penelope | Sum. | $4,006,000 | - | 1,196 | - | $3,349 | $4,006,000 | - | 1 |
| 9 | 12 | No Country for Old Men | Mira. | $4,005,000 | +66.6% | 2,037 | +936 | $1,966 | $69,570,000 | - | 17 |
| 10 | 8 | Juno | FoxS | $3,350,000 | -19.4% | 1,631 | -96 | $2,053 | $135,135,000 | - | 13 |
| 11 | 6 | Definitely, Maybe | Uni. | $3,251,000 | -37.7% | 2,189 | -31 | $1,485 | $26,519,000 | - | 3 |
| 12 | 7 | Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins | Uni. | $2,702,000 | -35.0% | 1,393 | -480 | $1,939 | $39,184,000 | $35 | 4 |
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| 13 | 9 | Be Kind, Rewind | NL | $2,100,000 | -48.2% | 810 | +2 | $2,592 | $7,134,000 | - | 2 |
| 14 | 11 | The Bucket List | WB | $1,755,000 | -30.1% | 1,565 | -337 | $1,121 | $87,666,000 | $45 | 10 |
| 15 | 10 | There Will Be Blood | ParV | $1,594,000 | -40.7% | 1,248 | -154 | $1,277 | $37,619,000 | $25 | 10 |
| 16 | 13 | Witless Protection | LGF | $1,000,000 | -52.8% | 1,354 | +21 | $738 | $3,508,000 | - | 2 |
| 17 | 16 | Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert Tour | BV | $883,000 | -44.5% | 531 | -82 | $1,662 | $63,102,000 | - | 5 |
| 18 | 15 | 27 Dresses | Fox | $860,000 | -47.6% | 796 | -571 | $1,080 | $74,471,000 | $30 | 7 |
| 19 | 14 | Charlie Bartlett | MGM | $818,000 | -55.5% | 1,122 | - | $729 | $3,236,000 | - | 2 |
| 20 | 21 | In Bruges | Focus | $766,000 | +3.7% | 232 | +69 | $3,301 | $3,754,000 | - | 4 |
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