Film Weekend Per Total
1 Knowing $24,814,000 $7,447 $24,814,000
2 I Love You, Man $18,005,000 $6,641 $18,005,000
3 Duplicity $14,402,000 $5,595 $14,402,000
4 Race to Witch Mountain $13,004,000 (-46.7%) $4,080 $44,715,000
5 Watchmen $6,725,000 (-62.3%) $1,916 $98,065,000
6 The Last House on the Left $5,921,000 (-58.1%) $2,465 $24,047,000
7 Taken $4,100,000 (-37.6%) $1,541 $133,139,000
8 Slumdog Millionaire $2,700,000 (-46.0%) $1,306 $137,202,000
9 Tyler Perry’s Madea Goes to Jail $2,510,000 (-50.9%) $1,368 $87,208,000
10 Coraline $2,143,000 (-21.2%) $1,498 $72,803,000

This just in: The Last of the V8 Interceptors.

If you went by the openings of The Wicker Man or Bangkok Dangerous, you might think Mr. Nicholas Cage couldn’t exactly open a movie beyond – say – ten million dollars or so. But Knowing was well sold, and some people seem to like it (at least Roger Ebert, who gave it four stars). And so the film opened to nearly $25 Million, and will probably top out around $60, unless the word of mouth is super kick ass. Super-kick-ass.

Though it came in second, it’s possible at the end of the day I Love You, Man will out-pace it as comedies tend to play a little longer than thrillers, so the Paul Rudd-Jason Segel pairing will likely be doing steady business until the summer season kicks off in six weeks. It’s strange to think that both of these guys are movies stars, though arguably Paul Rudd is as close as they’ve come to cloning Cary Grant. He’s probably the most handsome guy that’s enjoyable to watch being a shit. Expect $70 Million or more, which means a little more than Forgetting Sarah Marshall, and a taste better than Role Models.

Whereas Duplicity will have to get some word of mouth going. It should play older, so it could have some legs, but the film – which was either called super sharp or a modest lark – had something of a soft opening. Inside Man, which got to $90 Million, had twice as big an opening, and though we’ve seen some legs this year, it may not even get to the $49 Million of Michael Clayton (which had the Oscar bumps to help it). Very sad. It may pick up some heat if people like it, and word of mouth spreads, but I wouldn’t count on that.

Race to Witch Mountain did not hold that well and next week brings Monsters Vs. Aliens, so it’s probably done. A $60-$70 top out is not awful but The Game Plan got to $90 Million, so The Rock will not have solidified his kids movie rep. Watchmen came close to hitting $100 Million this weekend, but it didn’t because it faced another over 60% drop. Hitting $120 seems to be the ceiling now. I guess we won’t be getting a sequel. Win?

Last House might scrape toward $40, but these things are usually done on the cheap, so that’s probably a minor success. Slumdog hits DVD 3/31, so it should be wrapping up, even though it’s still making money. At this point, it should still be in a lot of theaters when that happens. And Taken is still with the cash, even if Liam Neeson is surrounded by tragedy. Coraline should scrape past $75, though next week it’ll lose whatever lingering 3-D screens it had. April should be interesting, we’ll see how Fast and the Furious 4 plays. Coming out four weeks before summer season could be brilliant or stupid. Starting in April hasn’t worked out awesome for a lot of films, but maybe this works.