Source:Box Office Mojo, Edward Douglas

March 23, 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.

While few experts could agree which movie might win the box office last week, of the three high-profile new movies, Alex Proyas' sci-fi thriller Knowing (Summit) starring Nicolas Cage was the clear victor, bringing in an estimated $24.8 million in 3,332 theaters - the widest release of the new movies as well as having the largest per-theater average of the Top 10.

Coming in second place was John Hamburg's new comedy I Love You, Man, starring Paul Rudd and Jason Segel, which earned an estimated $18 million, averaging $6,600 per site in 600 fewer theaters. Opening in third place, the Julia Roberts-Clive Owen espionage comedy Duplicity (Universal) from Oscar-nominated filmmaker Tony Gilroy (Michael Clayton) took in $14.4 million.

Disney's Race to Witch Mountain, starring Dwayne Johnson, dropped down to fourth place with roughly $13 million and a ten-day gross of $44.7 million.

Zack Snyder's adaptation of the graphic novel Watchmen (Warner Bros.) took another big hit in its third weekend, dropping 62% with $6.7 million for a total gross of $98 million.

It was followed by the remake of Wes Craven's The Last House on the Left (Rogue Pictures) in sixth place with $5.9 million and a total of $24 million.

Seventh and eighth place were taken by Fox's long running sleeper hits, the action-thriller Taken, which has grossed $133 million with the addition of $4.1 million this past weekend, and Danny Boyle's Oscar winner Slumdog Millionaire, which has grossed $137 million with another $2.7 million added this weekend.

The Top 10 grossed roughly $94 million, within a few hundred thousand of what the Top 10 made this same weekend last year.

The only significant new limited release, Cary Fukunaga's Sin Nombre, grossed $77 thousand in 6 theaters in New York and L.A.

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