Remakes are all the rage these days so I guess I shouldn't be surprised that from the six new movies released this weekend the only one to beat out last week's top two movies was a remake. Shia Labeouf and gang banditted away $23 million at the box office with the re-rendering of Hitchcock's Rear Window, Disturbia, unseating Blades of Glory which had been at number one for the last two weeks. Perfect Stranger took in $11.5 million but that was only enough to get into fourth place. X-Men III may have been one of the best selling movies last year, but this just goes to show that Halle Berry's name in the credits didn't have much to do with it.
Pathfinder: Legend of the Ghost Warrior was the only other debut this weekend to make the top ten. With $4.8 million it was lucky to sneak into the number sixth spot just about the seven week old Wild Hogs. The remaining three new releases just weren't up to the task. Redline was the only one without excuse. Showing in 1600+ theaters it should have done better than $4 million and its eleventh place spot. Aqua Teen Hunger Force Color Movie Film for Theaters (that's almost as bad as the inane full title for Borat) suffered from a total lack of intelligence and a limited release of 877 screens, coming in at $3 million and the unlucky 13th spot. The biggest loser was Slow Burn which ran in 1163 theaters but failed to make even $1 million, hardly making a blip on the box office radar. Check out the complete top ten chart below.
Grindhouse, which made an extremely poor showing in its debut last week, slipped just as quickly as I predicted, just barely beating Redline for the tenth place spot. In the last ten days it has only returned $20 million of its $67 million budget making it all but a complete disaster. There's been rumors of splitting the double feature into two separate releases to try and generate more cash. It's a tactic I don't understand. Why would people pay twice the price to see both movies? They're going to have to bank on DVD sales to make up the differece, but with the limited audience even that's a long shot for this double money pit.
Next weekend four more films join the fray. Ryan Gosling and Sir Anthony Hopkins thrill it out in Fracture. Meg Ryan tries to revive her floundering career with the quintessential chick flick In The Land of Women. Luke Wilson tries his hand at horror with Kate Beckinsale in Vacancy. Simon Pegg tries to recreate spoof comedy success with the much debated Hot Fuzz which may struggle to hit the top ten with a limited release of 700 screens. Rehashed Hitchcock won't be able to stay on top. Look for Gosling and Hopkins to draw the big bucks next week.
