‘Paul Blart’ Conquers ‘Underworld’

Published by Jeff Leins on: January 25th, 2009

PG movie Paul Blart: Mall Cop topped the box office for the second weekend in a row with $21.5 million.  Blart has earned $64.8 million total on a $26 million budget.  With very little in wide theaters, Americans continue to see lame movies and this time its no surprise that last week’s stunner wound up on top.

The Kevin James comedy edged out newcomer Underworld: Rise of the Lycans.  The prequel and third in the vampire series made $20.7 million.  The opening is on par with the other two Underworlds despite replacing the star (Kate Beckinsale) and the director (her husband, Len Wiseman).

Both were distributed by Sony.

The other wide release was Brendan Fraser’s Inkheart.  The family adventure has been delayed since Christmas 2007 and finally dumped quietly in January.  Its disastrous performance earned only $7.7 million and seventh place.  This means we probably won’t see any sequel adaptations of Inkspell and Inkdeath.  It also proves my point that no one cares about Brendan Fraser.

The Oscar-nominated films all received a healthy bump this weekend.  Slate estimates a nomination means at least an extra $6.7 million for a film.

For a movie like Slumdog Millionaire, that is a huge chunk of its $15 million budget.  The little indie that could particularly benefited, jumping 80% from last weekend into the top five after its 10 nominations, including “Best Picture,” and a win at the Producers Guild Awards.  It has already made $55.9 million.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button popped back into ninth with a much-needed $6 million.  It gathered the most Academy Award nods with 13.  The three-hour epic continues to struggle towards becoming profitable for Paramount.

Other “Best Picture” contender, Frost/Nixon rose 351% with $3 million.  Milk stayed local with 250 theaters and $864k and The Reader in 367 theaters added $1.4 million.  Both saw about a 10% bump.

3-Day weekend estimates:
1. Paul Blart: Mall Cop $21.5 million
2. Underworld: Rise of the Lycans $20.7 million
3. Gran Torino $16 million
4. Hotel for Dogs $12.4 million
5. Slumdog Millionaire $10.6 million
6. My Bloody Valentine 3-D $10.1 million
7. Inkheart $7.7 million
8. Bride Wars $7 million
9. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button $6 million
10. Notorious $5.7 million