This weekend was expected to be topped by Death Race, but that obviously did not happen. The remake (or reimagining, or "we liked the title and bribed the original producer") came in third, not terribly far off the pace, but enough to be labeled at least a little disappointing. It does not help that the film is nothing more than a live action video game with only the barest resemblance to the original (not that it was a great piece of art, but I would have loved to have seen the scoring system remain intact). Still, it was entertaining in a superficial way.
The biggest surprise, that shouldn't have been a surprise, is how well The House Bunny performed, easily above expectations, finishing in second. In retrospect, this should not have been too hard to see. The past few weeks have been dominated from male-centric films like The Dark Knight, Pineapple Express, and Tropic Thunder. This week brought something for the female audience, and they went out, perhaps not in droves, but they were there. All things equal, the film was not terrible either. Anna Faris is like the female equivalent to Leslie Nielsen.
One other film cracked the top ten this week, although just barely. Coming in tenth place is the sports drama The Longshots. This is actually a pretty good film that does things a little differently than your typical entry in this genre. Now, I can understand its low take, how many of these do we really need? Although it is notable for being the big screen directorial debut for Limp Bizkit front man Fred Durst. Yes, you read that right.
Among the remaining films, The Dark Knight continues its amazing run as it closes in on $500 million with another sub-40% drop. Also, Mamma Mia! continues to roll suffering a drop of less than 30%.
Next week will see holiday weekend competition from Traitor, Babylon AD, College, Disaster Movie, and Hamlet 2. Could be an interesting weekend.
Three movies dropped off the top ten this week: Vicky Cristina Barcelona (11), The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 (13), and Step Brothers (14).
| This Week | Last Week | Title | Wknd Gross | Overall | Week in release |
| 1 | 1 | Tropic Thunder | $16,272,195 | $65,839,915 | 2 |
| 2 | N | The House Bunny | $14,533,702 | $14,533,702 | 1 |
| 3 | N | Death Race | $12,621,090 | $12,621,090 | 1 |
| 4 | 2 | The Dark Knight | $10,542,424 | $489,416,885 | 6 |
| 5 | 3 | Star Wars: The Clone Wars | $5,661,456 | $24,999,054 | 2 |
| 6 | 5 | Pineapple Express | $5,452,163 | $73,780,191 | 3 |
| 7 | 4 | Mirrors | $5,010,663 | $20,211,066 | 2 |
| 8 | 7 | Mamma Mia! | $4,314,840 | $124,469,900 | 6 |
| 9 | 6 | The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor | $4,177,950 | $93,921,245 | 4 |
| 10 | N | The Longshots | $4,080,687 | $4,080,687 | 1 |
Box Office Predictions Recap
When you're off, you're off, and this week I was off. Who would have guessed that Death Race was going to falter? Bigger than that, who would have guessed The House Bunny would be the new release to challenge for the top spot? Not I. I also wouldn't have pegged Tropic Thunder to repeat at the top, no matter how much I thought of it. My biggest goof of all had to be The Rocker. That movie tanked right out of the gate, not even the early Wednesday open was able to nurse it to a top ten finish. For that matter, its first five day take wouldn't have gotten it onto the three day top ten list.
Here is how the field matched up:
| Actual | Prediction | Title | Wknd Gross | Prediction |
| 3 | 1 | Death Race | $12,621,090 | $15.5 million |
| 1 | 2 | Tropic Thunder | $16,272,195 | $15 million |
| 4 | 3 | The Dark Knight | $10,542,424 | $11 million |
| 2 | 4 | The House Bunny | $14,533,702 | $10 million |
| 12 | 5 | The Rocker | $2,636,048 | $8 million |
| 5 | 6 | Star Wars: The Clone Wars | $5,661,456 | $7 million |
| 10 | 7 | The Longshots | $4,080,687 | $6.5 million |
| 6 | 8 | Pineapple Express | $5,452,163 | $4.5 million |
| 7 | 9 | Mirrors | $5,010,663 | $4 million |
| 9 | 10 | The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor | $4,177,950 | $3.5 million |
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