Box Office Update 3/24-3/26: Inside Man

Spike Lee and an all star cast soared to the tops of the box office this weekend. Inside Man has become Spike Lee's biggest opening ever, a spot previously held by The Original Kings of Comedy which took in $11 million its opening weekend. The heist film took in nearly $29 million. It also marks the biggest opening weekend of star Denzel Washington, outperforming Man on Fire. Inside Man is a fun thriller with enough twists and ingenuity to keep you interested, although I was a bit underwhelmed by the finale. It is carried by a strong cast, which also includes Clive Owen, Jodie Foster, Willem Dafoe, and Christopher Plummer.

Stay Alive finished right where I expected it to, at number 3, although it probably doesn't deserve it. It has an interesting concept, but suffers from poor execution. It is a story that has been done better in the past, and with a little more ingenuity and a tighter script could be done better again. Sadly, the end result is about as fun as watching somebody play a video game, and we all know how much fun that is.

Rounding out this weeks 3 new releases, and coming in 7th place, is the redneck comedy vehicle Larry the Cable Guy, Health Inspector. A crude, lowbrow comedy based on the typical framework of the buddy cop comedy. I found it to be moderately humorous, but nothing that couldn't wait for cable. I suspect that this will slip rather quickly.

On the other side of the coin, James McTeigue's V for Vendetta dropped over 50%, but still held on for second place. This is a very good film, and probably the best release of the year. One other film also had a drop on the north side of 50%, the Bruce Willis thriller 16 Blocks. The film is hanging on to 10th place.

The middle of the list was ruled by comedies, with Failure to Launch, The Shaggy Dog, and She's the Man holding court. Each suffered drops in the 30%. And still holding on is the surprise hit Eight Below.

Three films dropped out off this week, The Pink Panther (11), Madea's Family Reunion (12), and Aquamarine (13).

I have added a new column to the table for my predictions, which are made each Friday in my New Movies column. This week I started strong with the top 5 correct, but the further I went, the worse I got. Still, not a bad followup to last week where I went 10 for 10.

This Week	Last Week	Predicted	Title	Wknd Gross	Overall	Week in release
1	N	1	Inside Man	$28,954,945	$28,954,945	1
2	1	2	V for Vendetta	$12,338,402	$46,205,949	2
3	N	3	Stay Alive	$10,726,406	$10,726,406	1
4	2	4	Failure to Launch	$10,462,474	$63,537,895	3
5	3	5	The Shaggy Dog	$9,035,928	$47,823,278	3
6	4	8	She's the Man	$7,296,562	$20,344,197	2
7	N	6	Larry the Cable Guy, Health Inspector	$6,922,767	$6,922,767	1
8	5	10	The Hills Have Eyes	$4,386,566	$35,717,166	3
9	7	7	Eight Below	$2,718,343	$77,137,940	6
10	6	9	16 Blocks	$2,160,379	$34,004,226	4

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