Top spot goes to 'The Other Guys'

By Sarah Sluis

The Other Guys led the weekend with $35.6 million, easily unseating Inception, which finished second with $18.6 million. The opening was 50% higher than last week's debut of the comedy Dinner for Schmucks. Younger males turned out in force, and their eagerness to see the movie opening weekend

helped drive up the first-week gross. The robust debut also affirms Will Ferrell's standing at the box office after last year's flop Land of the Lost. Ferrell will likely be lining up his next big-budget, starring role in the near future. Within the next 12 months, however, we'll see Ferrell wearing a smartly arranged set of hats designed to expand his star persona beyond that of a studio comedy headliner: he's starring in the indie movie Everything Must Go, which is debuting at the Toronto International Film Festival, he's doing voicework in DreamWorks Animation's Megamind, and producing the low-budget teen sex comedy The Virginity Hit. That's what I'd call a diversified portfolio.

In third place, Step Up 3D brought in $15.5 million. 75% of the theatres were 3D, and they brought in 81% of the total revenue. Higher ticket prices should have brought the total from the 3D theatres at least

25% higher, since most 3D surcharges add that much to the ticket price, so this suggests that 3D theatres underperformed. Variety points out that there are currently four 3D movies out right now, however, and that smaller venues may have scheduled 3D showings of the movie at less opportune times. Since Step Up opened to $20.6 million and Step Up 2 The Streets opened to $18.9 million, this further dip in the opening weekend gross likely spells the end of the franchise.

The Kids Are All Right broke into the top ten, earning $2.6 million in its latest expansion into 147 more locations for a total of 994 theatres. Oddly enough, the movie did a million dollars more last weekend but only eked out a twelfth-place finish. The story of a lesbian-led household and their teens' quest to seek out their sperm donor father has earned $14 million to date, testament both to the movie's good reviews and the subject's appeal in the marketplace.

Rob Reiner's kid-oriented comedy Flipped debuted in 45 theatres with a $5,200 per-screen average, a decent opening figure. This movie is set for expansion in coming weeks so it will need strong

word-of-mouth from initial viewers to propel it forward. The glamorous-teens-gone-bad film Twelve couldn't find its viewers and played to nearly empty theatres, posting just a $460 per-screen average for a total of $107,000. Middle Men, which stars Luke Wilson, also had a disappointing opening weekend, with a light $1,200 per-screen average for a total of $305,000. With a reported budget of $20 million, it looks like Paramount just dumped this movie and hoped for the best.

Lebanon's two-screen debut averaged $8,300 per screen, slightly smaller than another Sony Pictures Classics release about the Lebanon War. Waltz with Bashir averaged $10,000 per screen during its debut weekend in the 2008 holiday season. The Wildest Dream averaged $5,300 per screen on a dozen screens, a respectable amount for the National Geographic release.

This Friday, uber-female picture Eat Pray Love will go up against uber-male action movie The Expendables. The teen-oriented, comic-inspired Scott Pilgrim vs. The World will round out the bunch.