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So, you can count me in the shocked category on this Sunday afternoon because math thriller Knowing has landed Nicholas Cage on top of the box office once again. The Alex Proyos(Dark City, The Crow) film nabbed $24.8 million on 3,332 screens for a $7,447 average. Prior to this weekend's haul most industry experts were tracking the film at third place bow and around $15 million for the weekend. That prediction was blown out of the water when the sci fi offering pulled in $8.9 million on it's first day. Knowing once again proves the muscle that Cage brings to genre pictures.
Finishing very strongly (and right on expectations) was the Paul Rudd, Jason Segal vehicle I Love You, Man the laugher co-starring Rashida Jones toke in an estimated $18 million with a $6.641 average from 2,711 sites. This opening is right on target with other comedies of it's ilk with Role Models and Forgetting Sarah Marshall pulling in $19.2 and $17.7 million respectively. There is great word of mouth on Man and it should hold up as well as those other pics did.
The other new release of the week Duplicity opened decently in third place with $14.4 million. The Clive Owen/Julia Roberts vehicle failed to incite the same kind of fire as the similar Mr. and Mrs. Smith which bowed in the summer of 2005 to a whopping $50 million. That movie had the benefit of the summer season and a spicy Angelina Jolie/ Brad Pitt off screen tryst. Still, there was a day when a Julia Roberts movie would not be third banana.
The top five was rounded out by a couple of holdovers. Disney's Race To Witch Mountain fell 46% for an estimated $13 million and Watchmen continues its precipitous fall losing 62% of its audience for a weekend haul 0f around $6 million. The two films have gathered $44 million and $98 million respectively.
I did want to note one more top ten film. Coraline swept back into 3-d theaters this weekend and in doing so only lost about $600,000 weekend to weekend. It came in at number 10 with around 2 million bucks. It's nice to see such a well made film really resonating with a main stream audience. It's total cume now sits around $72 million.
| 1 | Knowing | $ 24,813,000 | 3,332 | 1 | $ 7,447 | $ 24,813,000 | Summit | ||
| 2 | I Love You, Man | 18,005,000 | 2,711 | 1 | 6,641 | 18,005,000 | Paramount | ||
| 3 | Duplicity | 14,402,000 | 2,574 | 1 | 5,595 | 14,402,000 | Universal | ||
| 4 | Race to Witch Mountain | 13,004,000 | 24,402,214 | -46.7 | 3,187 | 2 | 4,080 | 44,715,000 | Buena Vista |
| 5 | Watchmen | 6,720,000 | 17,817,301 | -62.3 | 3,510 | 3 | 1,915 | 98,060,000 | Warner Bros. |
| 6 | The Last House on the Left | 5,921,000 | 14,118,685 | -58.1 | 2,402 | 2 | 2,465 | 24,047,000 | Universal |
| 7 | Taken | 4,100,000 | 6,568,651 | -37.6 | 2,661 | 8 | 1,541 | 133,139,000 | Fox |
| 8 | Slumdog Millionaire | 2,700,000 | 5,002,777 | -46.0 | 2,067 | 19 | 1,306 | 137,202,000 | Fox Searchlight |
| 9 | Madea Goes to Jail | 2,510,000 | 5,108,532 | -50.9 | 1,835 | 5 | 1,368 | 87,208,000 | Lionsgate |
| 10 | Coraline | 2,143,000 | 2,718,231 | -21.2 |
