U.S Box Office Report - 28th - 30th September 2007

1. The Game Plan - $22.6M - $22.6M
2. The Kingdom - $17.6M - $17.6
3. Resident Evil: Extinction - $8M - $36M
4. Good Luck Chuck - $6.3M - $23.5M
5. 3:10 To Yuma - $4.1M - $43.9M
6. The Brave One -  $3.73M - $30.8M
7.Mr. Woodcock - $3M - $19.1M
8. Eastern Promises - $2.8M - $11.2M
9. Sydney White - $2.6M - $8.5M
10. Across the Universe - $2M - $5.5M

A minor upset this weekend sees The Game Plan taking the top spot instead of the expected 'The Kingdom'. With The Game Plan being the only real family friendly film in the top ten (in fact, there's not been a family friendly film since Mr Bean's Holiday) it should have been inevitable that it'd get the top spot, regardless of how awful it looked in the trailers. In a starring capacity, this film marks the best opening for a Rock movie since 2002 Scorpion King. After the disappointment of Gridiron Gang and Doom, the Rock needed a bit of success, and this comedy about a football player who discovers he has a daughter looks to be the right movie at the right time.

Political thriller The Kingdom opens in the second spot with a decent $17M. Starring Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Garner and Jason Bateman the film was expected to be the number one movie this weekend but some lacklustre reviews and perhaps a general apathy to the subject matter (A team of investigators looking into a bombing of US citizens in Saudi Arabia) may have turned off a large percentage of the audience. Furthermore, with that political slant and perhaps not as much action as the fantastic trailer would suggest, those looking for a quick fix of mindless entertainment where also turned off. Expect this to finish up with a disappointing $35-40M.

The third of the Resident Evil movies is off a massive 66% in only its second weekend, a high amount even for a heavily front loaded movie. With that low second weekend take, it looks as if practically anyone who wanted to see the film did so in its first weekend. This won't be around for much longer and might even make DVD before Christmas. It's foreign take should equal or surpass its US one and when the dust has settled you'll find this has made Sony another tidy profit.

Good Luck Chuck doesn't fall as hard as RE:E but that second weekend total isn't anything to write home about. With comedy competition in Mr Woodcock, Chuck should have cleaned up this weekend, instead it's off 53% and will start to see its screen count slashed to make way for The Heartbreak Kid. Dane Cook will next be seen in the Steve Carrell comedy/drama Dan In Real Life.

3:10 to Yuma has dug its heels into the charts and drops just one place in its fourth weekend of release. This weekend also marks the movie crossing the $40M line as it edges closer to recouping its production budget of $55M. The only problem for the studio is that it isn't recouping that cost fast enough and it might find itself out of the charts quickly just to make way for the quick buck-quick profit movies.

The Brave One crosses the $30M mark and it's been lucky to see that much. This one-woman vigilante flick was expected to perform much better thanks to Jodie Foster's presence raising it above its straight-to-DVD roots but instead it's failed to make much an impact and will be quickly forgotten once it leaves the top ten.

Despite performing strongly in relatively limited release, Eastern Promises hasn't been able to hold its ground. Would it have performed better had the studio opened it on 2500 screens? Perhaps, but this is the type of film that was never destined for blockbuster style success (that said, neither was A History of Violence and that cleared $30M). Critically the film has performed well and good word of mouth should see it in the top ten for a while longer yet.

Only a lack of new releases is keeping the horrific Mr Woodcock in the top ten. An embarrassment for all concerned, though luckily for Susan Sarandon, she also has The Valley of Elah (Paul Haggis' follow up to Crash) in limited release to offset her role in this.

Sydney White had little impact last weekend and another week should see it on its way to DVD, where it'll make up for its lack of ticket sales with some decent DVD ones. See also BRATZ.

Still in a very limited release, the Julie Taymor Beatles music inspired film, Across The Universe, manages another impressive haul. The film is at just 339 locations and has one of the best screen/takings average of any film in the top ten. The studio needs to expand this movie quickly so as to capitalize on its success in a limited capacity - to leave it too long will mean people will either not bother seeking the film out or simply wait for the DVD release.

One other new release, at 1200 locations, failed to make much impact even with an impressive cast. Feast of Love, starring Morgan Freeman & Greg Kinnear made just $1.7M.