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Sadly in sixth is The Express, the Ernie Davis story. The Express, despite its effective ad campaign and release in the heart of football season, could only muster an opening weekend of $4.7 million from 2,808 venues. Have there been too many football/sports movies over the last few years? We've had some serious misses from the football genre in the last year, including Ice Cube's The Longshots ($11.3 million) and Leatherheads ($31 million), and 2006's We Are Marshall could only find a $6 million opening. Reviews were fair, coming in at 64% fresh, and as I mentioned above, it seemed to have a good ad campaign. Has the Dennis Quaid curse returned?

Nights in Rodanthe finishes seventh after a fourth place finish a weekend earlier. The Richard Gere/Diane Lane romance earned $4.6 million, and was off a fair 37%. Nights has a gross so far of $32.4 million.

Finishing eighth is Apaloosa, the Ed Harris oater. After finishing a surprising fifth last weekend with a $5 million take, Apaloosa holds well, earning $3.3 million and dropping 34%. It has a total so far of $10.9 million against a $20 million budget.

Ninth spot goes to The Duchess from Paramount Vantage. Starring Keira Knightley, The Duchess earned $3.3 million from 1,207 venues, after earning about $2 million in limited release. It has a gross so far of $5.6 million.

New release City of Ember ends up in tenth, and 20th Century Fox's lack of support put the writing on the wall for this one. Despite starring Bill Murray and Tim Robbins, City of Ember could only come up with $3.2 million this weekend from 2,022 venues. Reviews were mixed; RottenTomatoes had 86 reviews at the time of this writing, and 40 were fresh, leaving it with a RT rating of 47%. If it wasn't truly horrible, why did Fox wait so long to trot out the TV ads and kick-start the marketing campaign?

Overall, the box office is up over last year. The top 12 films this weekend earned a solid $87.4 million, ahead of last year's take of $83.9 million, when Tyler Perry's Why Did I Get Married came out on top with $21 million. Next weekend is going to be another interesting frame at the box office as a number of new openers could perform strongly. Openers include W. (the Bush biopic from Oliver Stone), Max Payne with Mark Wahlberg, The Secret Life of Bees with Alicia Keys and a very strong cast, and Sex Drive from Summit Entertainment.

Top Weekend Box Office for 10/10/08-10/12/08 (Actuals)
Rank	Film	Distributor	Estimated Gross	Actual Gross	Weekly Change	Running Total
1	Beverly Hills Chihuahua	Walt Disney Pictures	$17,511,000	$17,502,077	- 40.3%	$17,502,077
2	Quarantine	Screen Gems	$14,200,000	$14,211,321	New	$14,211,321
3	Body of Lies	Warner Bros.	$13,120,000	$12,884,416	New	$12,884,416
4	Eagle Eye	DreamWorks Pictures	$11,015,000	$10,913,762	- 38.4%	$70,409,979
5	Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist	Sony/Screen Gems	$6,500,000	$6,420,474	- 43.2%	$20,730,708
6	The Express	Universal	$4,731,480	$4,562,675	New	$4,562,675
7	Nights in Rodanthe	Warner Bros.	$4,610,000	$4,541,201	- 38.4%	$32,297,101
8	Appaloosa	New Line Cinema	$3,340,000	$3,321,389	- 34.2%	$10,867,693
9	The Duchess	Paramount Vantage	$3,320,000	$3,304,841	New	$5,603,061
10	Fireproof	Samuel Goldwyn/idp	$3,188,780	$3,140,997	New	$16,875,765
11	City of Ember	Fox Walden	$3,200,000	$3,129,473	New	$3,129,473
12	Lakeview Terrace	Screen Gems	$2,650,000	$2,654,644	- 41.8%	$36,201,729
	Also Opening/Notables
	Billy: the Early Years	Rocky Mountain Pictures	$199,938	$192,042	New	$192,042
	RocknRolla	Warner Bros. Pictures	$141,000	$144,701	New	$144,701
	Happy Go Lucky	Miramax Films	$80,000	$73,867	New	$73,867
	Lola Montes	Rialto	N/A	$12,569	New	$12,569
	Religulous	Lionsgate	$2,200,000	$2,230,898	- 34.6%	$6,732,631
	Flash of Genius	Universal Pictures	$861,930	$867,780	- 61.5%	$3,744,790
	Blindness	Miramax Films	$471,000	$486,726	- 75.0%	$3,073,392
	How to Lose Friends and Alienate People	MGM	$418,000	$440,066	- 69.2%	$2,458,092
	How to Lose Friends and Alienate People	MGM	$418,000	$440,066	- 69.2%	$2,458,092
Click here for all weekend data
Box office data supplied by Exhibitor Relations

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