Weekend Box Office: I Can Do Business All By Myself

As expected, the new Tyler Perry flick "I Can Do Bad All By Myself" nabbed the top spot at the weekend box office by a wide margin. Perry's latest comedy/drama featuring his popular alter-ego Madea grossed roughly $24 million in its first three days. While not as big as the openings of some of his other movies, such as the $41 million pulled in during the first three days of "Madea Goes To Jail" seven months ago, the $24 mil pulled in by "Bad" is a tremendous amount for any film that is opening right after Labor Day.

In second place for the weekend was the better-than-expected bow of the PG-13 animated feature, "9". Opening last Wednesday (9-9-09), the film pulled in $10.9 million for the weekend and $15.3 million in five days. Reviews were mixed on the CG-animated tale, but with the marketing focusing on Tim Burton and Timor Bekmambetov's involvement in the film reviews were no doubt ignored by those curious to see what the producing duo helped conjure.

Third spot went to Quentin Tarantino's "Inglourious Basterds", a film that is proving to be just as durable as its title characters. Dropping 44%, the popular World War II flick nabbed another $6.54 mil for a $103.4 million gross. Watch for "Basterds" to pass "Pulp Fiction" next week as Tarantino's highest-grossing film to date (pre-'Pulp' gross inflation, that is). Just a heads up, the film is due on Blu-ray and DVD in mid-December. Nothing says "Happy Holidays!" more than Eli Roth bashing a Nazi's brains in with a baseball bat.

Falling less (49%) than I thought it would given the dire word-of-mouth attached to it, the Sandra Bullock comedy "All About Steve" nabbed fourth place with $5.4 million for a ten-day gross of $21.8 million. Whether it holds up in the upcoming weeks is anyone's guess, but the less than 50% drop proves that no matter the quality of the film, people are in the mood to laugh this year.

Dropping from first to fifth was the 3-D horror hit "The Final Destination", which nabbed $5.5 million for a $58.6 million gross. In sixth place was the other horror film in the top ten, the DOA T&A slasher flick "Sorority Row". With an anemic $5.6 million for its opening weekend, this film will be all but a bad memory by next Friday. Faring worse was the Kate Beckinsale misfire "Whiteout", which pulled in $5.1 million for seventh place. Watch for a DVD/Blu-ray announcement on this Warner Brothers write-off sometime within the next week or so.

Spots eight through ten were occupied by holdovers: in eigth was the hit "District 9" with $3.6 million and a $108.5 million gross (Please Sony, no sequel. Leave well enough alone.). Ninth spot went to "Julie and Julia" with $3.3 million and a $85.3 million gross, while tenth went to the now-you-see-it, now-you-don't Gerard Butler actionier "Gamer". Dropping a huge 66%, the Lionsgate release just over $3 mil and a ten-day gross of $16.1 million.

Next week, another quartet of new titles hit cinemas: the family feature "Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs", the Jennifer Aniston romantic comedy "Love Happens", the Matt Damon corporate comedy "The Informant!" and "Jennifer's Body", featuring Mensa member Megan Fox, whose fifteen minutes of fame, or at least the amount of time she is allowed to actually speak, is hopefully coming to a fast end.