Rank
Title
Weekend
Gross
Cumulative
Gross
Weeks in Release
1

Gridiron Gang
$15,000,000

$15,000,000
1
2

The Black Dahlia
$10,362,000

$10,362,000
1
3

Everyone’s Hero

$6,150,000

$6,150,000
1
4

The Last Kiss
$4,702,000

$4,702,000
1
5

The Covenant
$4,700,000

$15,714,000
2
6

Invincible
$3,904,000

$50,911,000
4
7

The Illusionist

$3,751,000

$23,254,000
5
8

Little Miss Sunshine
$3,350,000
$46,390,000
8
9

Hollywoodland
$2,736,000
$10,536,000
2
10

Crank
$2,700,000
$24,414,000
3

The top spots this weekend went to all new films, with The Rock’s latest terrible film taking the top spot. America loves getting force-fed the same pablum film after film, so it’s not that big a surprise that this utterly unoriginal and unsurprising film should take the #1 position. Coming in at #2, and looking at a massive drop-off next week thanks to poisonous buzz, is Brian De Palma’s take on James Ellroy’s The Black Dahlia. While I appreciated De Palma’s twisted noir film, most of America was revolted by a movie that didn’t spoon-feed itself to them.

The third spot goes to the “Everybody involved in the making of this is dead, so you have an obligation to go” CGI cartoon, Everyone’s Hero, which Christopher Reeve started before his “death” (see Loose Change for more information on how your government installed a holographic Christopher Reeve years ago). Rounding out the newbies is the completely excruciating The Last Kiss, which my best friend loved, but then again she’s a girl.

Truly astonishing is the drop that Hollywoodland took, plummeting from #2 to barely keeping itself in the top ten at number nine. The middle lower section of the chart seems to continue to be the happy home for Little Miss Sunshine and The Illusionist, two films whose week to week drop-offs are impressive. Add these movies to the list of small to mid-budget films that saved Hollywood this year, a list that includes The Break-Up and The Devil Wore Prada.

Next week sees some movies coming out that people might actually like: I imagine that Jackass Number Two is going to do exceptionally well, as will Jet Li’s Fearless. All the King’s Men was silently knifed to death in terms of Oscars this past week when it played at Toronto – next Friday we’ll see if audiences like this one better than critics. And in very limited release is the beautiful, sad and heartbreakingly honest new film from Michel Gondry, The Science of Sleep.