Kevin James is the king of the box office. The actor’s latest broad comedy, Paul Blart: Mall Cop, won the Martin Luther King holiday weekend in decisive fashion, grossing $33.8 million, according to Sunday’s estimates. That total far exceeds all expectations.
The movie thus becomes James’ latest big-screen success (after Hitch and I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry), and it’s his first hit opener as the main lead star. Too, this marks the second success that Adam Sandler has had as a producer in less than a month: His Bedtime Stories has grossed $103.7 mil since debuting on Christmas day. Credit likely goes as much to James’ growing appeal as to the film’s broad reach: According to CinemaScore, the comedy (which got an okay grade of B) drew an audience comprised of all “four quadrants” — older men, older women, younger men, and younger women.
But that wasn’t the only piece of good news at the box office. Clint Eastwood’s Gran Torino (No. 2) continued its impressive drive through theaters, bringing in another $22.2 mil on a mere 25 percent decline. That film’s total now stands at $73.2 mil.
Next up were two freshman flicks running neck-and-neck, My Bloody Valentine 3D and Notorious. Their sums were so similar ($21.9 mil and $21.5 mil, respectively), that we won’t know which film was No. 3 and which was No. 4 until Monday’s final figures come out. One thing that does separate the two is the fact that Notorious played in about 900 fewer venues; thus, it scored the weekend’s best per-theater average, $13,126.
Hotel for Dogs (No. 5) rounded out the top of the list, barking up a decent but — considering how lucrative canine cinema has been of late — somewhat softer than anticipated $17.7 mil. And even further down the rankings, the theatrical expansion of Defiance (No. 8 with $9.2 mil) fared better than the wider roll-out of Last Chance Harvey (No. 13 with $4.7 mil).
Overall, the vast array of hearty movies drove the cumulative box office up nearly 28 percent from the same frame a year ago, when Cloverfield and 27 Dresses boosted the holiday weekend. And speaking of the holiday, have a nice one tomorrow, people!
More Box Office News:
EW.com’s Box Office Chart
Box Office Preview: My Bloody Valentine aims to make a killing
Gran Torino drives away with a win
Batman was a blockbuster, but did 2008 bomb?
Marley & Me wins for a second straight week
Oooh ohh I’m first!!!
Yay for me!!
I rather wait til mall cop cums out on DVD
Don’t wanna waste 10 bucks on a ticket
And waste 8 bucks on a small soda
And then waste 7 bucks on a small popcorn
1) Josh Rich predicted Bloody Valentine would win; it comes in 3rd or 4th.
2) Rich predicts Mall Cop would come in 4th; it is #1. Mall Cop grosses more than 2 times what Rich predicts.
3) Notorious earns twice as much as Rich predicts.
4) Last Chance Harvey earns less than half what Rich predicts.
These predictions aren’t near-misses. These are WAY WAY WAY off.
What bothers me, though, isn’t Rich’s bad predictions. It’s his “explanations” for the results. He thinks Mall Cop won because of Kevin James’ “growing appeal” and Four Chrismases won because the word “Christmas” was in the title. Really.
He’s clueless.
People don’t go to a movie because of the actor. Why did Eddie Murphy’s Meet Dave, Mike Myers’ Love Guru, and Dustin Hoffman’s Last Chance Harvey each do so badly? Or, alternatively, why did Twilight and Mall Cop do so well? It’s because of the STORIES. A movie looks good, so people see it. Nobody is so stupid that they see a movie for the actor or for its name.
I think we also need to see the # of theaters the movie is running!
for instance Slumdog Millionnaire in its 10th? week raked in $5.9mil running in just 582 theaters.. whereas the mainstream movies are running in 3000+ theaters..
People are seeing Mall Cop for the story?!? C’mon!! Times can’t be so tough if people are spending $9.50 and up to see this. Just goes to show you that there’s a market for everything, and people are willing to spend it on cr*p like this.
great debut for Kevin James as a lead actor
yall can watch this movie and other new releases free on defspot.com save your $10
What a depressing headline.
This was a great movie for the whole family. I took my kids 10, 13, 15 yrs old and we all laughed the entire movie!
Can’t wait to see Paul Blart – not out for 2 more months in the UK though. Also, I know this is a bit cheeky but… I have a real struggle actually buying EW in London and often go to extreme lengths to get it! So, I started a blog about it… Take a look!
http://thatsew.blogspot.com/
wow and i tought this movie s**ck hard i guess theres diferent taste i movies.
Dumbass!
I, for one, can’t believe that this dumb movie beat MBV 3-D. I saw MBV last night and let me say it was much better than I thought it would be. Then again, it did have Jensen Ackles.
Interesting how Joshua Rich’s original predictions for the weekend are mysteriously nowhere to be found on the EW site.
Josh’s original predictions – link:
http://hollywoodinsider.ew.com/2009/01/boprev-bloody.html
Honestly not surprised Paul Blart did this well. What do teens/tweens like to do? Hang out at the mall. Plus it’s a long weekend. Perfect goofy comedy for them to go see. Plus MBV-3D still has some competition in the theaters – The Unborn just came out. People still going to see that.
Actually, if you looked at the end of the article, it’s right there:
More Box Office News:
EW.com’s Box Office Chart
Box Office Preview: My Bloody Valentine aims to make a killing
Nice conspiracy theory though.