October is off to a sad, sad start with a complete waste of budget like Beverly Hills Chihuahua taking the number one spot by a painfully large margin.
The latest Disney disaster took in $29 million over the weekend, breaking into the top ten all time October openings and proving yet again that with enough over-the-top marketing and the promise of talking animals you can sucker the American public into handing over their hard earned money for anything.
Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist rolled in at third place with $12 million, coming in behind last week's number one Eagle Eye which dropped to $17 million. While the cash amount for Nick and Norah might be disappointing, it's nothing to sneeze at compared to what the rest of the new releases this weekend.
Among the ridiculous onslaught of eight new films that debuted or expanded to wide release this weekend, most brought in $5 million or less. Western drama Appaloosa fared the best in fifth place. The rest came in ninth place and down.
Michael Moore spoof An American Carol carved out nearly $4 million followed closely by Bill Maher's entry into the pseudo-documentary genre Religulous. Feel-good Flash of Genius and thriller Blindness missed the top ten, scraping together $2 million apiece and eleventh and twelfth places respectively.
The biggest loser was Simon Pegg comedy vehicle How to Lose Friends and Alienate People which managed less than a thousand dollars per theater and came in at a near non-existent nineteenth place. Perhaps it might have fared better on a weekend without such stiff competition, but for now it will have to pray for the chance to stem some of the loss on DVD.
