Film Weekend Per Total
1 He’s Just Not That Into You $27,465,000 $8,650 $27,465,000
2 Taken $20,300,000 (-17.9%) $6,376 $53,364,000
3 Coraline $16,335,000 $7,105 $16,335,000
4 The Pink Panther 2 $12,000,000 $3,700 $12,000,000
5 Paul Blart: Mall Cop $11,000,000 (-20.7%) $3,471 $97,002,000
6 Push $10,204,000 $4,412 $10,204,000
7 Gran Torino $7,420,000 (-9.9%) $2,743 $120,280,000
8 Slumdog Millionaire $7,400,000 (-3.0%) $4,292 $77,426,000
9 The Uninvited $6,400,000 (-38.0%) $2,730 $18,379,000
10 Hotel for Dogs $5,820,000 (-32.6%) $2,129 $55,234,000

This just in: Rumors of Lux Interior’s demise have not been exaggerated. Not even for comic effect.

I look at this box office and it scares me a little. Everything, save for The Pink Panther 2, did excellent business. Like really good business for a non-important weekend. The only way to read this is that the economy is bad and people are going to the theater. I mean, is the ad campaign and word of mouth so uniformly excellent with Taken that’s the reason it only had an 18% drop? Is that what that is? That people wanted to go last week, but didn’t cause of the Superbowl? I look at this, and it’s like the sky’s gone green in anticipation of a storm. Even The Uninvited’s fall off was less than the standard horror 60%. I mean, this has something to do with the Superbowl, but still.

First and foremost, I’m happy for the makers of Coraline. I’ve never been a big fan of being invested in hometeam, but when people you know are in the credits, it’s hard not to be happy when their film is successful (Morrisey aside), and I know the devotion to stop-motion may feel like antiquated technology, but if you revisit Melies, there’s still that joy that comes from magic tricks, and there’s something rather enchanting about films of this ilk. So that $16 is pretty great, though the film has a shelf life with the Jonas Brothers coming in three weeks to take away a lot of the 3-D screens. The film supposed works well in 2-D, and it should hopefully make it to $60.

But the big winner is of course He’s Just Not That Into You. A low 20’s figure seemed likely, but this exceeds that. It probably won’t make it to $100, but that’s not impossible if these heavier weekends continue. And who’s to say that Taken won’t also coast to near that number. Fox has been shitting the bed of late, but you’ve got to give it up for them with this film. Perhaps they’ve turned a corner (or not). Audiences also showed a decided lack of interest in The Pink Panther 2. Which effectively ends the possibility of a trilogy unless those international numbers are robust. International is known to respond to slapstick, so it’s possible, but the warmed over quality of the film may keep them away. Push is one of those films that $10 feels like a good number for what it is, though it’s going to struggle to get near $30. But it’s not like Chris Evans is that expensive.

Paul Blart is spitting at $100, which it will hit sometime Thursday/Friday. Amazing. And Gran Torino crossed $120, which means if these holds hold, it could get near $150 when all is done. I mean it only dropped 10% this week. The thing that will hurt it the most is losing screens, but the film is an Iceberg Slim-styled pimp at this point. And Slumdog looks to have enough juice to get to $100 because it will get something of an Oscar bump, and it’s worth it at this point to limp it if it starts to peter out. The film was cheap, so the advertising dollar to get it there is likely worth it.

Next weekend, though, Jason Vorhees may kill the box office. I’m touching the ground here, fingering the sediment, and it feels like we’re looking at a monster hit. But with the BO weather behaving as it is, it’s hard to say how big.