U.S Box Office Report - 11th - 13th April 2008

1. Prom Night - $22.7M - $22.7
2. Street Kings - $12M - $12M
3. 21 - $11M - $62M
4. Nim's Island - $9M - $25.2M
5. Leatherheads - $6.2M - $21.9M
6. Horton Hears a Who - $6M - $139.6M
7. Smart People - $4.2M - $4.2M
8. The Ruins - $3.2M - $13.4M
9. Superhero Movie - $3.1M - $21.2M
10. Drillbit Taylor - $2M - $28.4M

Another week and another god awful remake - at least this one isn't an Asian movie update but rather a remake of the 80s slasher flick Prom Night. Utterly watered down and polished to a bright shine, Prom Night has somehow become the number one film in North America this weekend. With next to no known stars and a PG13 rating (How can a good horror movie be PG13?) it seems that the public saw something in Prom Night that they didn't see in the other new releases or existing movies in the top ten. It'll fall fast and be a distant memory within three weeks but a success like this just sends the message to Hollywood that the public prefer their horror with no scares, no gore and no new ideas. Given its lack of stars and production value, Prom Night is probably already in profit.

Keanu Reeves has been absent from screens since 2006's The Lake House but returns with Street Kings, a gritty corrupt cop thriller set in Los Angeles. Based on a story by James Ellroy, Reeves plays a detective forced to question some of his actions and those of his fellow officers upon the death of his wife. The film co-stars Forest Whittaker and Hugh Laurie and was directed by corrupt cop favourite David Ayer. That opening is about on the money with expectations but Street Kings feels like it should be more of an Autumn release - consequently it may end up getting lost amongst the more popcorn friendly fare (Training Day took a packet during its October release). Next weekend gives us a couple of wide release but only one should cause any kind of trouble (Forgetting Sarah Marshall) so it might get another weekend to shine.

Winner of the previous two weeks, 21, takes a tumble but still crossed the $50M mark during the last week and is off just 28% from last weekend.. The Kevin Spacey produced card counting movie defied expectations in its open weekend and continued to do so into its second. It had been widely expected on its opening weekend that SuperHero Movie would take the top spot against it but that wasn't to be, while Leatherheads also failed to rob the film of the top spot last weekend. 21 should finish with around $85M, turning a nice profit into the bargain.

When the dust settled last Monday as final figures for the weekend emerged it was revealed that Nim's Island had actually outperformed George Clooney's Leatherheads by just over a million dollars. With Horton on its last legs Nim's Islands was set to reap in some serious cash from the family market, and it did achieve that to some degree and is off just 31% in its second frame. Also on Nim's side is its $37M budget, a figure it should have no great problem recouping. Jodie Foster last saw success with Flightplan (Inside Man made more money but her role was really just above a cameo) and disappointment with last year's The Brave One. She's currently in pre-production on the long delayed Flora Plum. Leatherheads meanwhile hasn't had much better a time in it second frame, and there'll be no problem deciding whether it performed better than Nim's Island this week. Leatherheads cost $58M and will need to rely on its international take to shore up its domestic tally. George Clooney will next reteam with the Coen brothers for Burn After Reading.

Horton edges closer to $150M in the domestic market and a huge global total of $225M. So far, Horton is the biggest movie of 2008 and looks to stay that way for another few weeks until Summer kicks off and Iron Man takes its place.

At just over 1000 locations, Smart People is relying more on rising star Ellen Page than main stars Dennis Quaid and Sarah Jessica Parker to get tickets sold. The quirky comedy features Quaid as a recently widowed professor who finds love entering his life once again. Page plays his acerbic daughter. Given her recent success in Juno it makes sense to suddenly thrust a support role into the front of your advertising campaign. This appeared out of nowhere and will quickly disappear the same way. Same for The Ruins, which in its 9th day of release has only taken just over half of what Prom Night did in three days.

Rounding us off this week is Superhero Movie, spending its last weekend in the top ten and leaving with $21.2M. Drillbit Taylor has managed a couple of weeks longer than expected and leaves the charts with a take of $28.4M.