
Tyler Perry’s latest Madea Goes to Jail easily took the #1 spot this weekend, while sophomoric comedy, Fired Up fizzled out, debuting in ninth place.
Madea Goes to Jail was Tyler Perry’s best debut ever, grossing $41.1 over the weekend and easily outpacing his previous record holder, Madea’s Family Reunion, which debuted to $30M, 3 years ago. Madea’s weekend take was way above my $26M prediction. The most impressive thing about Madea’s debut was the per screen average. Madea made approximately $20,000 per screen, 4 times its closest competition, Coraline, which made $5,000 per screen.
High School cheerleading comedy, Fired Up, debuted in ninth place with $6M, exactly as I thought. The movie should finish its run with about $17M, but may have a future on DVD or cable.
Friday the 13th plummeted 80% in its second outing, grossing $7.8M, bringing its total to $55M. This has got to be the biggest drop I’ve ever seen. I thought my prediction of a 70% drop was an aggressive one. Boy was I wrong. Without the help of Valentine’s Day, He’s Just Not That Into You dropped 56% and Confessions of a Shopaholic dropped 53%.
It wasn’t all bad news for holdovers, however. Slumdog Millionaire was up 10% in anticipation of the Oscars. Kid flick Coraline eased off 25% to bring its total to $53.3M after 3 weeks. Liam Neeson’s action flick, Taken, fell an understandable 40% in its fourth week of release and should pass the $100M mark in a few short days. To see how the rest of my predictions fared, check out the chart below.
|
RANK
|
TITLE
|
FEBRUARY 20-22
|
FEBRUARY 13-15
|
% CHANGE
|
# OF THEATRES
|
# OF WEEKS
|
TOTAL
|
BILL SAID
|
|
1
|
Madea Goes to Jail
|
$41.1M
|
N/A
|
N/A
|
2032
|
1
|
$41.1M
|
$26M
|
|
2
|
Taken
|
$11.4M
|
$18.9M
|
-40%
|
3102
|
4
|
$95.1M
|
$11.5M -40%
|
|
3
|
Coraline
|
$11M
|
$14.7M
|
-25%
|
2155
|
3
|
$53.3M
|
$11M -25%
|
|
4
|
He’s Just Not That Into You
|
$8.5M
|
$19.5M
|
-56%
|
3050
|
3
|
$70M
|
$8.8M -55%
|
|
5
|
Slumdog Millionaire
|
$8M
|
$7.3M
|
+10%
|
2244
|
15
|
$98M
|
$7.3M
|
|
6
|
Friday the 13th
|
$7.8M
|
$40.5M
|
-81%
|
3105
|
2
|
$55M
|
$12.2M -70%
|
|
7
|
Confessions of a Shopaholic
|
$7.02M
|
$15M
|
-53%
|
2507
|
2
|
$27.6M
|
$7.8M -48%
|
|
8
|
Paul Blart: Mall Cop
|
$7M
|
$10.9M
|
-36%
|
2835
|
6
|
$121M
|
$7.7M -35%
|
|
9
|
Fired Up!
|
$6M
|
N/A
|
N/A
|
1810
|
1
|
$6M
|
$6M
|
|
10
|
The International
|
$4.4M
|
$9.3M
|
-52%
|
2364
|
2
|
$17M
|
$4.7M -50%
|