Box Office Review: Foster wins at box office, in life

Jodie Foster's rather inexplicable box-office appeal was on half-display this weekend as The Brave One pulled in a mediocre 14 million dollars to top the charts. Early forecasts had suggested a 17-20 million dollar haul but mixed reviews, an R-rating and rather dark subject matter cut into those expectations. 3:10 to Yuma held strong in its second weekend, stealing an additional 9.15M and raising its treasure chest to 28.5M.

The pitifully-reviewed Mr. Woodcock came in just behind Yuma, tallying 9.10M in its opening weekend. Dragon Wars was a distant fourth, taking in 5.3M in its debut. After that, it was all hold-overs: the resilient Superbad (5.2M, 111.3M), the crappy Halloween (5.0M, 51.2M), the still super Bourne Ultimatum (4.1M, 216.1M), the shitty Balls of Fury (3.3M, 28.8M), shitty Rush Hour 3 (3.3M, 133.1M) and Mr. Bean's Holiday (2.6M, 28.4M).

In limited release, Across the Universe ($29,782 per), Eastern Promises ($36,866) and In the Valley of Elah ($16,666) all did fantastic opening week business. The weekend's other newcomers, King of California ($7420), December Boys ($4500) and Silk ($1057) weren't nearly so fortunate and will quickly vanish from theaters.

Photo courtesy of Warner Brothers