James Mangold's remake of 3:10 to Yuma, starring Russell Crowe and Christian Bale, continues to bring in business, as it moved down to #2 with a respectable drop of 35%, putting it just ahead of Mr. Woodcock by an estimated $50,000. Yuma has grossed $28.5 million in its first ten days compared to a budget of $55 million. The New Line comedy fared better than some thought despite awful reviews and being delayed for over a year, averaging roughly $4,000 per site in 2,231 locations.

The big surprise for the weekend would have to be the success of the Korean monster movie Dragon Wars (Freestyle Releasing), which grossed $5.4 million to knock the Judd Apatow-produced comedy Superbad (Sony) down to fifth place, despite being off only 31% from last weekend. It's become another hit in Apatow's belt, having grossed $111 million in five weeks of release.

Opening in a few more theaters than Woodcock, Dragon Wars' average of $2,363 per location wasn't particularly impressive but the wide release did help get it into the Top 5. (Everyone might want to check back on Monday afternoon when actual numbers are announced because the placement of slots 2 through 5 are likely to change if any of the movies have been overestimated.)

Rob Zombie's remake of Halloween (Weinstein Company) dropped down to 6th place with $5 million, having grossed $51.3 million after its record-setting Labor Day weekend opening of over $30 million.

The Matt Damon action thriller The Bourne Ultimatum (Universal) continues to do huge business, seeing another negligible drop in its seventh weekend in the Top 10, landing in seventh place with $4.1 million and a total gross of $216 million in North America. It's grossed another $101 million internationally.

The ping pong comedy Balls of Fury (Rogue Pictures) and the action-comedy threequel
Rush Hour 3 went head-to-head for 8th place with $3.3 million each. The former has grossed nearly $29 million since its Labor Day opening, while the third pairing of Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker has grossed $133 million domestically and $62 million elsewhere.

The New Line action-thriller Shoot 'Em Up was knocked out of the Top 10 with a 55% drop, having grossed just $10.3 million in its first week.

Of the movies released in select cities, Julie Taymor's Beatles movie musical Across the Universe (Sony) fared the best, grossing $685 thousand in 23 theaters, an impressive per-theater average of just under $30,000 per site. David Cronenberg's Eastern Promises (Focus Features), which opens wide next weekend, averaged more per-theater than any other movie this weekend, grossing $552 thousand its opening weekend in 15 theaters. That's slightly better than what Cronenberg's last movie A History of Violence did in its first weekend two years ago with an identical release pattern.

Paul Haggis' In the Valley of Elah (Warner Independent), starring Tommy Lee Jones and Charlize Theron, grossed $150 thousand in 9 theaters, a decent average of $16,666 per site. The historic drama Silk (Picturehouse), starring Keira Knightley, didn't fare as well, grossing just $129 thousand in the widest limited release into 121 theaters, averaging only a thousand dollars per site.

Evan Rachel Wood, the star of Across the Universe, also co-starred with Michael Douglas in the indie King of California (First Look), which grossed just $37,000 in five theaters, while the presence of Daniel "Harry Potter" Radcliffe didn't do much to help the Australian drama December Boys (Warner Independent) gross more than $17,000 in four theaters in New York and L.A.

Once again, the box office was up from the same weekend last year, the top 10 grossing 9% more than last year's offerings.