Wow. As surprised as I am by how good Taken is and how much I liked it, I had no idea it would be, far and away, the number one movie of the weekend. Its opening was even strong enough to make it the second biggest opening for a Super Bowl weekend, behind the Hannah Montana film that opened last year. I guess I should not be too terribly surprised, the Friday night screening I attended was very nearly a sell out.
While Taken was the big surprise of the weekend with a gross very near $25 million, the success of Paul Blart: Mall Cop has to be seen as an unbelievable success. It held the top spot in its first two weekends and only slipped to second here, suffering very modest drops along the way. No, it will not challenge the insane success of last year's The Dark Knight, but it could very well be the first 2009 film to cross the century mark. What may be even more surprising is that it is a genuinely funny and sweet-hearted comedy that does not rely on gross-out humor. Seriously, go and check it out, you will not be able to keep from laughing.
In addition to Taken, two more new releases reached the top ten this weekend. First, the new horror film The Uninvited, which is actually pretty good! No, it is not great and it will not likely be remembered a few years down the road, but for the moment let's just say I was pleasantly surprised. This is unexpected considering how much I despise the trailers I have seen for it. Funny thing, I was expecting this to be the bad one and The Unborn to be the good one. Oh, how the tables turned.
The other new entry over the weekend was the Renee Zellweger/Harry Connick Jr. romantic comedy New in Town. It opened to horrific notices from critics, which seems to have had an effect on its box office take. I was sure it was going to take the top spot, or at least challenge for it. Of course, I decided to take a pass and did not see it. I guess I did not miss much.
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