Source:Box Office Mojo, Edward Douglas

March 16, 2009

The ComingSoon.net Box Office Report has been updated with studio estimates for the weekend. Click here for the full box office estimates of the top 12 films and then check back on Monday for the final figures based on actual box office.

After a weekend where all eyes were on the box office, Disney's Race to Witch Mountain, starring Dwayne Johnson, quickly took over the top spot with an estimated opening weekend of $25 million in more than 3,100 theaters. Averaging over $7,800 per site, it opened slightly bigger than Johnson's last Disney movie The Game Plan, which was also directed by "Witch Mountain" helmer Andy Fickman. That movie went on to make $90 million, although "Witch Mountain" has some heavy family competition in DreamWorks Animation's Monsters vs. Aliens, opening in just two short weeks.

Zack Snyder's adaptation of the graphic novel Watchmen (Warner Bros.) took a nasty plunge from its strong opening weekend, dropping 67% to second place with $18 million in its second weekend. It has grossed $86 million in North America in its first ten days, though it will be a push for it to get to $130 million before it's gone from theaters.

Another remake opened in third place as Wes Craven's revenge thriller The Last House on the Left (Rogue Pictures) found a new audience of horror fans, scaring up an estimated $14.7 million in 2,401 theaters, averaging over $6k per site.

20th Century Fox's hit thriller Taken, starring Liam Neeson, continues to be one of the studio's strongest movies of the year, adding another $6.7 million this weekend to bring its total to $127 million. It is commemorating its seventh week in the Top 5 since opening in early February.

Tyler Perry's Madea Goes to Jail (Lionsgate) dropped three spots to fifth with $5.1 million and a four-week total of $83.2 million, the highest amount grossed by one of Perry's movies to date.

Danny Boyle's Oscar winner Slumdog Millionaire continues to be profitable for Fox Searchlight with a running total of $133 million with the addition of $5 million this weekend in sixth place.

Columbia Pictures' Paul Blart: Mall Cop, starring Kevin James, brought in another $3 million as it dropped to eighth place. It has grossed over $137 million since opening in January.

Henry Selick's stop-motion animated Coraline (Focus Features) received a nice bump from returning to Digital 3D theaters, dropping just 18% from last weekend, and remaining in the top 10 with $2.6 million and a total gross of $69 million.

Opening in tenth place, Fox Searchlight's Miss March, starring IFC's "The Whitest Kids U'Know," barely made a mark with just $2.3 million in 1,742 theaters, averaging just $1,349 per location.

The Top 10 grossed roughly $85 million which was down 16% from the same weekend last year when Fox's Horton Hears a Who! topped the box office with $45 million. Roughly half of the movies in the Top 10 have been in there for four weeks or more, which says a lot about the movies released in the last month.

Click here for the full box office results of the top 12 films.