Horrible trend takes box office

By Scott Bowles, USA TODAY

Women and girls ruled theaters this weekend as Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert Tour did a monstrous $29 million, according to studio estimates from box office trackers Nielsen EDI.
The haul was twice what many analysts projected and averaged more than $42,000 on the 683 theaters that could accommodate the digital 3-D film.

The turnout prompted executives at Disney to extend indefinitely the run of the film, which was initially to play for a week.

"We don't want to turn away kids from the theaters who couldn't get into the concerts," says Chuck Viane, Disney's distribution chief. "If it's still going strong for two weeks in Vegas, it'll stay for two weeks. If it's going for a month, we'll keep it there a month."

The Jessica Alba horror film The Eye also did better than expected, taking second place with $13 million.

And the Katherine Heigl bridesmaid comedy 27 Dresses continues to play well. It dropped just 37% to take third place and $8.4 million. The film has done $57.1 million in three weeks.

The teen pregnancy comedy Juno also held strongly, taking fourth place with $7.5 million and $110.3 million overall.

The spoof comedy Meet the Spartans was No. 5 with $7.1 million, followed by Rambo with $7 million.

Newcomers not named Hannah were not so fortunate. The comedy Over Her Dead Body was 11th with $4.6 million, while the Steve Zahn comedy Strange Wilderness was tied for 12th with $3.1 million.