U.S Box Office Report - 13th - 15th February 2009

1. Friday the 13th -  $42.2M - $42.2M
2. He's Just Not That Into You - $19.6M - $55M
3. Taken - $19.2M - $77.9M
4. Confessions of a Shopaholic - $15.4M - $15.4M
5. Coraline - $15M - $35.5M
6. Paul Blart: Mall Cop - $11.7M - $110.5M
7. The International - $10M - $10M
8. The Pink Panther 2 -  $9M - $22.3M
9. Slumdog Millionaire - $7.1M - $86.5M
10. Push - $6.9M - $19.3M

We've hit the second four day weekend of the year with Presidents Day on Monday, therefore, expect some slightly higher totals.

It's been a few years since Jason X and Freddy Vs Jason graced our screens. Platinum Dunes, looking for a quick hit decided that rather than produce yet another sequel they'd go right back to the start and attempt to reinvent the Jason Vorhees saga. Some smart marketing, not to mention an R rating instead of a watered down PG-13 helped this rebooted Friday The 13th to open to the biggest haul of any film in the entire series. With Michael Bay producing and the directing reigns in hangs of Marcus Nispel, who did the gritty Texas Chainsaw Massacre reboot a few years ago, Friday The 13th was a hit straight out of the gate on Friday. There's every chance it had already recouped its production budget by Saturday evening. It'll tumble like most horror films do (retooled, rebooted, it still didn't score any favours with critics) but it's achieved what it set out to do - offer a few scares, make some quick cash and restart a franchise.

After an impressive first weekend, He's Just Not That Into was down 51% on a Friday to Friday basis but recovered better as the weekend wore on, especially on Saturday night where it appeared to be the number one choice for a Valentines Day movie. The ensemble romantic comedy faced some competition from Confessions of a Shopaholic but managed to stand its ground. This one should top out around $85M and perform equally well on the international market (especially with such a huge cast - a star to appeal to almost everyone).

Clive Owen's The International did little to threaten Liam Neeson's success with Taken in its third weekend of release. Down an astonishing 6% this weekend the action thriller has now surpassed its international take and stands a strong chance of seeing $100M in the US. Factoring in that US tally, the film's global total is over $150M. In the middle of the worst recession for over fifty years, was it really a wise move to release a comedy about a women who can't stop spending and maxing out her credit cards? It took the best intentions of the lovable Isla Fisher to get the film as much box office as its managed to pull together, and part of that total could be put down to Valentine's Day. This won't be around for long but should have an ok four day weekend total and not a bad start considering Fisher is the only draw (though my wife informs me that the books on which the film is based have a strong fan base)

Stop motion flick Coraline was down and ok 34% from last Friday (a fantastic 11% overall) and is scoring some good word of mouth which helped reduce that drop further. It's hard to say where the film will go from here - there's only a total of four new releases in the next two weeks and none of them looks likely to set the box office alight, giving Coraline chance to get comfortable and attract more viewers. We won't see Nightmare Before Christmas type longevity here but Coraline should turn out to be a respectable hit by the end of its theatrical run.

Tom Tykwer's The International stumbles and falls straight out the block. With Taken and Friday the 13th attracting most of the male demographic the thriller had no real place to go. Furthermore, trailers and hype on this one have been kept to a minimum meaning a number of people had no idea what it was all about. Clive Owen stars as an Interpol agent attempting to expose a high profile finance company's ties to a large arms dealing ring, Naomi Watts adds support as a District Attorney helping Owen bring the company down. Thanks to the limited amount of new releases the film should manage another week or two in the top ten but be long forgotten by March. Not sure what went wrong with this one - lack of hype? Lack of appeal? Owen will return again soon, opposite Julia Roberts in the comedy Duplicity.

Paul Blart: Mall Cop crossed the $100M line on Friday, making it the first film released in 2009 to do so. It's also had a pretty good weekend, considering its now been on general release for a month. At this point it doesn't really matter where Blart goes, it's made a huge profit and hasn't even opened in any foreign territories whatsoever. We could be looking at a global total of $250M by summer. A figure the Pink Panther sequel can only dream about. Down 44% from last Friday isn't too bad for the Steve Martin sequel but it's opening taken wasn't too great either. The only saving grace is that this has almost certainly put the nail in the coffin of the relaunched franchise. To see how just how bad the film has been doing - it's at more locations than any film in the top ten and last Wednesday made just $109 from each of those sites.

Slumdog Millionaire is just waiting around now for its inevitable Oscar boost. The $15M film has so far take over $131M when you combine its domestic take with its international one. Push didn't achieve much last weekend and it's done even less this one. Expect the people with superpowers action flick to be on DVD by May.