The onus was on Jonas this weekend to make good at the box-office, but the boys took a back seat to Tyler Perry’s moneymaking machine Madea Goes to Jail, which took the No. 1 spot for the second consecutive weekend.
With nearly $65 million in collected bail money, Madea gave audiences the chance to escape TO jail along with this extremely popular character and the results are impressive.
In the second spot, Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience opened with just $12.70 million. With visions of Miley Cyrus and her $31.1 million opening weekend dancing in my head, I certainly thought the Jonases would have a shot at matching Miley’s numbers. Nonetheless, the film had the best per-theatre average in the Top 12 with nearly $10,000 in each of the 1271 locations for the weekend.
In third place was the fabled Slumdog, er, Multi-Millionaire, which realized a huge 45 percent increase and should become a textbook case for how to release a film to not only Oscar gold, but huge box-office success. With another $12.1 million this weekend and $115.1 million and counting, the film is a lock to become the highest grossing of the Best Picture nominees.
At No. 4, Taken, the very definition of “legs,” continued to amaze with its stubborn unwillingness to leave the Top five and a miniscule 12 percent fifth weekend drop. The film now stands at $107 million in domestic receipts.
Rounding out the top five was He’s Just Not That Into You, which continues to hold steady as its nears the $80 million mark. Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li debuted in eighth with $4.6 million and generated a respectable per-theatre average in just 1136 theatres.
Not a very strong weekend at the box-office but still solid enough to beat last year’s frame by 11 percent, as we watch out for the phenomenon that is Watchmen and its expected strong opening on March 6.
THREE-DAY STUDIO ESTIMATES
1. Tyler Perry’s Madea Goes to Jail (Lionsgate) – $16.5M; 2052 theaters; $8,041 PTA; -60%; $64.8M cume
2. NEW! Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience (Disney) – $12.7M; 1271 theaters; $9,992 PTA
3. Slumdog Millionaire (Fox Searchlight) – $12.1M; 2943 theaters; $4,128 PTA; +45%; $115.1M cume
4. Taken (Fox) – $9.9M; 3089 theaters; $3,221 PTA; -12%; $107.8M cume
5. He’s Just Not That Into You (Warner Bros.) – $5.8M; 2858 theaters; $2,056 PTA; -31%; $78.5 cume
6. Paul Blart: Mall Cop (Sony/Columbia) – $5.6M; 2698 theaters; $2,076 PTA; -18%; $128.1M cume
7. Coraline (Focus) – $5.2M; 2092 theaters; $2,511 PTA; -54%; $61.1 cume
8. NEW! Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li (Fox) – $4.6M; 1136 theaters; $4,093 PTA
9. Confessions of a Shopaholic (Disney) – $4.4M; 2534 theaters; $1,772 PTA; -33%; $33.6M cume
10. Fired Up (Sony/Screen Gems) – $3.8M; 1811 theaters; $2,098 PTA; -31%; $10.1M cume
