New at BOP: Review: Matrix Resurrections Movie Review: Moonfall Movie Reviews: Scream The #1 Movie in America November Forecast The Many Saints of Newark October Forecast New Trivia Question All site updates Share & Save   Tweet Print this column

Still hanging out in the upper half of the top ten is Superbad, which comes in at number three. With a $8.0 million weekend, Superbad also has a milestone as it crosses the $100 million mark ($103.7 million total). In all seriousness, if we had shown you this movie's credentials back in February, would you ever have guessed that it would be an eventual $100 million earner? Kudos to all involved in the project.

Balls of Fury drops an okay 50% from last weekend on its way to fourth place. Its weekend total is $5.7 million. Still, for a comedy that stars no one famous except Christopher Walken, its cumulative tally of $24.3 million isn't all that bad. It will fade into the sunset over the next few weeks, but should have decent life on DVD, where goofy comedies such as these can really succeed.

The amazing performance of fifth place film The Bourne Ultimatum carries on this weekend, as it takes in an additional $5.5 million. That's a 47% drop from its previous frame, which means that plenty of patrons are still finding reasons to go see this excellent spy flick. With a grand total of $210.1 million, it's the biggest earner still in the top ten, and one of the top performers of the summer.

Sixth place goes to Shoot ‘ Em Up, our second new opener of the weekend. The Clive Owen/Paul Giamatti/Monica Bellucci actioner did not fare particularly well as it managed only $5.5 million from 2,066 venues. That's a mediocre per location average of just $2,585. While it's not a strong performer at the box office, Shoot ‘Em Up does have a great chance at finding an audience on home video. That's going to have to be enough to keep New Line happy.

The third installment in the Rush Hour franchise finishes in seventh place. It drops 38% from last weekend as it has a three-day total of $5.3 million. With $129.2 million in the kitty, Rush Hour 3 is actually approaching its reported production budget of $140 million. Once international receipts and home rental numbers are added in, it's going to provide a tidy little profit.

Mr. Bean's Holiday falls to eighth place as it manages a weekend total of $3.4 million. That's a 43% drop from last weekend, which is probably a bit higher than expected given the family-friendly nature of the film. So far, Mr. Bean's Holiday has earned a grand total of $25.1 million in North America, which pales in comparison to the $190 it has totaled in international markets.

Ninth place goes to Scarlett Johansson's The Nanny Diaries, which is showing decent staying power; however, because it started out small, that's not saying all that much. The Nanny Diaries took in $3.3 million over the weekend, a drop of 35%. Its running total of $21.0 million isn't setting the world on fire, but serves as a nice enough advertisement for its impending DVD release.

Rounding out top ten is Hairspray, the New Line Cinema musical that had a marvelous summer. In what is likely to be its final week in the top ten, Hairspray fell 29% as it earned $2.0 million over the weekend. With a total of $114.9 million, Hairspray is one of the most successful movie musicals ever.

Compared to last year, when The Covenant was tops at the box office with only $8.9 million, this year's top 12 compare quite favorably. This year's total of $66.1 million is a 22.5% increase over last year's paltry $54.0 million. Next weekend isn't likely to be overly exciting, though a surprise from The Brave One or Mr. Woodcock is possible. David Cronenberg's latest, Eastern Promises, wil also be in theaters along with the solidly marketed Dragon Wars from Freestyle Releasing.

Continued:       1       2