Box Office - 'Into You' Wins, 'Taken' Holds Strong

Although He's Just Not That Into You claimed the top spot at the box office this weekend, I think the real story is Taken. Last week's number one film only dropped one position this weekend - despite four new movies in theaters - and kept a remarkable 82% of its audience from the previous stanza. It's typical for a film to lose 40 or 50% of its audience between the first and second weekends, so this tells us the word got out about the Liam Neeson revenge movie, which now appears headed for at least $80 million in U.S. ticket sales. Box Office Mojo reports that Into You earned $27 million this weekend, slightly more than was expected, but certainly not a number that anyone thought was outside the realm of possibility. In fact, the other new releases provided more surprises, with the animated Coraline, easily the film with the least mass appeal of the four, landing in third place with $16 million. Dakota Fanning's other film, Push, died a quick death, only managing $10 million. And The Pink Panther 2, a sore subject around these parts, also had an underwhelming debut, winding up in fourth place, barely ahead of the month-old Paul Blart: Mall Cop. The Top Five:
1 - He's Just Not That Into You ($27.5 million)
2 - Taken ($20 million)
3 - Coraline ($16 million)
4 - The Pink Panther 2 ($12 million)
5 - Paul Blart - $11 million

Comments

[Will]

Has Mr. Martin responded to your open letter yet? I love his play Picasso at the Lapin Agile. It's too bad that his Hollywood fair isn't in the same league as that these days...

[Get The Big Picture]

His writing overall has been very good since his acting career went in the toilet. I always thought Picasso would have made an interesting film.