Boring box office

This weekend, a few new movies opened up to low, low numbers. This will no doubt make executives cry. Which is sometimes a good thing, but really, studio executives have feelings, too. Mostly those feelings consist of hunger and exhaustion. Let's go to the numbers, shall we? (All in millions, remember, and these are the studio estimates. The actuals will be available on Monday. Just to prove this column wrong).

1. Semi-Pro (NL) - $15.2, 3121 screens, week 1, $15.2 total
2. Vantage Point (Sony)- $13.0, 3150 screens, week 2, $41.0 total
3. The Spiderwick Chronicles (Par) - $8.7, 3654 screens, week 3, $55.0 total
4. The Other Boleyn Girl (Sony) - $8.3, 1166 screens, week 1, $8.3 total
5. Jumper (Fox) - $7.6, 3128 screens, week 3, $66.8 total
6. Step Up 2 The Streets (BV)- $5.7, 2528 screens, week 3, $48.5 total
7. Fool's Gold (WB) - $4.6, 2845 screens, week 4, $59.0 total
8. Penelope (Sum) - $4.0, 1196 screens, week 1, $4.0 total
9. No Country For Old Men (Mira) - $4.0, 2037 screens, week 17, $69.5 total
10. Juno (FoxS) - $3.3, 1631 screens, week 13, $135.1 total

So those are the numbers, but what do they mean? It means that New Line has had a terrible week. Aside from being absorbed into the larger Time Warner monolith and losing the creative forces behind the company (who have been doing it for nearly 40 years!), they had the number one movie of the week. It's also the number one movie with numbers far lower than expected. And a Will Ferrell movie, no less? It sounds fool proof, and yet somehow it didn't work. Regardless, thank you New Line, for bringing us Lord of the Rings, Nightmare on Elm Street, and all the flicks in between.

(Including the uber-BADASS movie Shoot 'Em Up, which really needs more respect from the world).

What else do we have here? The Other Boleyn Girl, a movie with Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johansson, that is not (I repeat NOT) rated NC-17, opened up to decent numbers for a movie with these two lovely ladies that doesn't include intimate moments between them. I'm sure I'm going to be dragged to this thing, but that's cool because Eric Bana is also in it, and he usually kicks a lot of ass. And Penelope opened up to not very good numbers. I know nothing of this movie aside from Christina Ricci is in it. And growing up, she and I had the same orthodontist.

The Academy Awards were last week, and Best Picture winner No Country climbed back on to the top ten, pretty much making the same amount as Penelope. This is the highest grossing Coen brothers film yet, and the most praised. Also staying in the top ten is Juno, winner of Best Screenplay. Mmmm... Diablo Cody.

Wait, how the hell has Jumper made $66 million?!?!?!

And in the "Because It's Rambo" series: Rambo, took in $235,000 on 402 screens, bringing it's grand total to $42,245,000 in 6 weeks.

There you have my break down. Next week, 10,000 BC!!! This movie is going to be amazing. And terrible. At the same exact time. I already have my ticket! It's this year's Transformers!!! Until next weekend....