Three new releases dominated the top 10 this week, headed up by the Nicolas Cage thriller Knowing. The film’s $24.8 million opening take gives Cage his third No. 1 bow in as many years (following 2007’s National Treasure: Book Of Secrets and 2008’s Bangkok Dangerous), despite his latest films’ generally lukewarm critical reception. The R-rated buddy comedy I Love You Man (a.k.a. I Bro You, Bro) took No. 2 with $18 million, a number right in line with the opening-weekend performances of the previous R-rated comedies from its two stars. (Paul Rudd’s Role Models took $19.2 million and Jason Segel’s Forgetting Sarah Marshall took $17.7 million.) The Julia Roberts/Clive Owen-starring Duplicity landed at No. 3 with a solid $14.4 million.
The strong performances from the week’s three new contenders meant the weekend’s holdovers took some pretty substantial hits. Last week’s No. 1, Return To Witch Mountain, was king of the repeats, but landed at No. 4 overall with $13 million. Watchmen took another deep cut to the tune of a 62 percent decline, landing it at No. 5 with $6.7 million. The Last House On The Left remake also fell hard to No. 6 with $5.9 million, less than half of its opening-week numbers. Taken and Coraline were the sturdiest of the repeat contenders, the former dropping 38 percent to No. 7 with $4.1 million and the latter 21 percent to No. 10 with $2.1 million—and, more importantly, finally knocking Paul Blart: Mall Cop from the top 10. Slumdog Millionaire took in another $2.7 million, placing it at No. 8, just ahead of Tyler Perry’s Madea Goes To Jail, at No. 9 with $2.5 million.
More detailed box-office numbers can be found at boxofficemojo.com.