Box Office Review: Max brings the Payne!

Now stand aside, sir, so I can go make love to this Ukrainian prostitute!! | Photo courtesy of Twentieth Century Fox

As expected, Marky Mark's Max Payne easily won this weekend's box office race, tallying $18M in its debut to top the persistent and nefarious Beverly Hills Chihuahua ($11.2M/$69M). Two other newcomers, the dull The Secret Life of Bees and the great W., filled the next two slots with respective grosses of $11M and $10.5M. W. had a surprisingly strong start on Friday before tailing off slightly as the weekend continued. Apparently, Americans just can't get enough of their flawed yet heroic president, George W. Bush.

The crappy Eagle Eye earned an undeserved $7.3M ($81.3M) as dumb teenagers continued to flock in to see the fey Shia LaBeouf in action. After that, it was the disastrous Body of Lies ($6.8M/$24.4M), the decent Quarantine ($6.3M/$24.6M), the great Nick and Norah ($3.9M/$26.7M), the funny Sex Drive ($3.5M) and the sweetly unrealistic Nights in Rodanthe ($2.6M/$36.8M). In limited release, What Just Happened? ($6000 per theater), Morning Light ($2436) and Frontrunners ($7400) were all fair to mediocre performers.