WEEKEND BOX OFFICE REPORT

Sony must have learned something from You Got Served*. Applying the same secret January sauce, Stomp the Yard clomped its feet and pounded itself silly to debut as the number one box office draw despite Tony Kerasotes — or maybe because
of– refusal to show it (as laid out by Devin on Friday) at his theater chain.
Or, maybe, the $22 million take isn’t so much a product of hype as it was just an
uninspiring January weekend where something had to give after weeks of everyone
seeing the same movies.

Regardless, it took Stomp the Yard to introduce Night at the Musuem and
The Pursuit of Happyness to a couple little slots called, respectively, “Number Two and Three”.
Interestingly, things were dull enough this weekend, and last weeks releases more of the same, Dreamgirls sauntered their way back to number four, despite making $1
million less than the previous week. Hillary Swanks journal-loving pursuit of Freedom Writers rounded out the top five.

In the lesser loved section of the BO top ten, Children of
Men slipped three to number six, looking like it will quickly make its way into
critically loved, but for now, mass-appealing obscurity.

Alpha Dog finally made it out of the courts and began dropping
2.5 f-bombs a minute at a theater near you, but only managed seventh place,
with Primeval‘s Gustape the killer Croc chomping Dominic
Purcells dream of a name-making big screen lead into crunchy pieces with a weak
(and unsurprising) number eight debut. America
also joined The Academy in handing Luc Besson’s Arthur and the Invisibles another bag of snub with the number ninespot, while The Good Shepherd took its last
longing gaze at the top ten from the bottom of the top ten.

* In January 2004, Sony’s You Got Served debuted at number one as well.