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3) Eagle Eye
The only $100 million earner of the month, I consider Eagle Eye to be a perfect example of a film doing exactly what was expected of it. Shia LaBeouf was riding a tremendous hot streak with the sleeper hit, Disturbia, and a pair of $300+ million juggernauts, Transformers and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Eagle Eye was expected to be a slightly bigger title than Disturbia, and this is exactly what happened. The title earned about $19 million more domestically and became the young actor's fourth $100+ million hit as well as his third consecutive one (with a fourth waiting in the wings next month). An argument could be made that three out of those four would have happened independent of him, making Eagle Eye the first $100 million hit he can claim as his own. Even if he were not a part of two massive franchises, Disturbia and Eagle Eye alone would be enough to make LaBeouf one of the hottest actors in our industry. In terms of actual money, Eagle Eye is the biggest winner of the month, but its $178 million in worldwide revenue against an $80 million budget is less impressive than the two titles listed above it. Eagle Eye matched expectations whereas each of those films easily exceeded them.

4) Lakeview Terrace
Samuel L. Jackson loves roles such as this one that deal with slice of life misadventures. The similarly toned Changing Lanes earned a solid $66.8 million and he has covered some of the same ground about racial tension with Black Snake Moan, Coach Carter and The Negotiator. All of these films except for Black Snake Moan earned at least $44 million, meaning that Lakeview Terrace's $39.3 million domestic performance (with an additional $5 million worldwide) is right in line with past performances if a bit low. Lakeview Terrace has already earned another $20 million on home video, something that doesn't factor into its ranking but does demonstrate the themes have struck a chord with viewers. For a $20 million production, it's done very well on the whole.

5) The Women
This movie's overall performance is a good demonstration of why it is so important to go back after a reasonable period of time and offer some post-game analysis on films. Upon first blush, the film's $10.2 million debut, good enough for only fourth place, seemed modest at best. The only good news at the time was that the title carried a production cost of only $16 million, which goes a long way in showing the salary disparity between established actors and actresses in the industry. But I digress. The point is that The Women's $26.9 million domestic run was okay, but wouldn't have been judged a hit without its addition accrual of $22 million in foreign gates. Once those are factored into the equation, the title winds up with a worldwide take of $48 million, a factor of three larger than its budget. Sure, its marketing and foreign expenses probably wipe out most of its profit, but it's theoretically well into the black. For a month like September, that's a win.

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