"Watch"-ing the box office
The weekend’s top-five movies (estimated totals courtesy of Box Office Mojo; final figures will be available Monday afternoon):
1. Watchmen
$55.7 million
2. Tyler Perry’s Madea Goes to Jail
$8.8 million
3. Taken
$7.5 million
4. Slumdog Millionaire
$6.9 million
5. Paul Blart: Mall Cop
$4.2 million
Photo courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures
As expected, the R-rated “Watchmen” was by far the weekend’s biggest movie, and finally knocked off the new Tyler Perry comedy off its perch.
However, the second-day drop-off for “Watchmen” … which saw the movie’s business fall off by nearly 25 percent … was a little alarming. Typically, blockbusters “hold” more strongly than that. The film should break the $100 million threshhold fairly easily, though … possibly as soon as next week.
Meanwhile, the Academy Award-winning “Slumdog Millionaire” had another strong weekend. The film has now earned $125 million in its U.S. release.
But “Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience” continued to disappoint. The concert movie dropped off by 75 percent in its second weekend and nearly fell out of the weekend top 10.
It will be interesting to see how the R-rated “Watchmen” fares in its second weekend. Friday’s competition includes the PG-rated “Race to Witch Mountain,” starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.