Thanks to the continued success of PAUL BLART, MALL COP, neither of the weekend’s genre debuts managed to nab the top slot at the box office this weekend, but one of them managed to land in second.
UNDERWORLD: RISE OF THE LYCANS opened in 2,941 North American theatres, earning an estimated $20.83-million – about $1-million beneath BLART. That was considerably below the previous weekend’s debut of MY BLOODY VALENTINE ($24.1-million) and slightly above the $19.8-million earned by THE UNBORN on the weekend before that.
The weekend’s other genre debut fared less well. Opening in 2,656 theatres, INKHEART landed in 7th place with only $7.6-million, perhaps suggesting that costume fantasy films are waning.
As for returning films, MY BLOODY VALENTINE dropped from third to sixth place, earning $10-million during its sophomore session.
And CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON dropped out of the Top Ten, going from #9 to #11, where it earned $6.1-million, raising its five-week total to $111.13-million.
Read the complete Top Ten here.