Rank
Title
Weekend
Gross
Cumulative
Gross
Weeks in
Release
1
Saw III
$34,300,000
$34,300,000
1
2
$9,840,000
$91,090,000
4
3
$9,626,000
$28,834,000
2
4
$6,350,000
$19,926,000
2
5
Open Season
$6,100,000
$77,357,000
5
6
Flicka
$4,975,000
$14,138,000
2
7
Man of the Year
$4,714,000
$28,871,000
3
8
The Grudge 2
$3,300,000
$36,016,000
3
9
Marie Antoinette
$2,580,000
$9,756,000
2
10
$2,550,000
$2,884,000
2

It’s not surprising that Saw III did well this weekend. Everybody saw that coming. What’s shocking to me is that this franchise still has such momentum behind it – enough momentum to make Saw III, which opened on a handful more screens than Saw II, have the biggest first weekend in the series. Aren’t horror franchises supposed to lose some steam over time? I guess Saws IV, V and VI will shed some light on that question over the next three Halloweens.

And in second place is the Martin Scorsese film that could, The Departed. It’s doggedly hanging in there, obviously the recipient of killer buzz. It’s going to cross 100 million next week and become Scorsese’s biggest movie of all time. Meanwhile The Prestige does OK, but probably doesn’t have The Departed’s steam. Flags of our Fathers is another story though – Paramount added screens this weekend and the movie still plunged. This one is shaping up to be an actual bomb. What’s that going to do to the movie’s Oscar chances, and how will it affect the companion piece, Letters from Iwo Jima?

The rest of the chart is normal movement down, although Marie Antoinette looks to be dead in the water. Running With Scissors, one of the worst movies of the year, went wide this week and snuck in at #10. The other new wide release, Catch a Fire, couldn’t catch a break – it got raped with a 2 million dollar opening, making it #12.

Next week Borat, a movie Fox seems determine to make us all sick of before it comes out, goes up against two kiddie movies: The Santa Clause 3 and Flushed Away. The question is whether Borat can make #3 or is Scorsese will be sitting pretty in that spot.