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Ay, Chihuahua!

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Ay, Chihuahua!

6 October 2008 10:39 AM, PDT | From Studio Briefing
| See recent Studio Briefing news

Disney’s Beverly Hills Chihuahua took a $29-million bite out of the
box office over the weekend, scampering far ahead of a field of six other
new films. Last week’s No. 1 movie, Paramount/DreamWorks’s Eagle Eye,
slid to second place with an estimated $17.7 million. Sony’s low-budget
Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist, which received
better-than-average reviews, also saw better-than-average box-office results
as it took in $12 million, about what it cost to make. In its second week,
Warner Bros.’ Nights in Rodanthe placed fourth with $7.3 million.
Several of the other low-budget flicks released over the weekend performed
reasonably well. Warner Bros.’ Appaloosa, which expanded into wide
release, came in at No. 5 with about $5 million. Vivendi Entertainment’s
political satire An American Carol opened with $3.8 million in 1,639
theaters for ninth place. And Bill Maher’s anti-religion documentary
Religulous opened in tenth place with $3.5 million, despite playing
in just 502 theaters. At the opposite end of the belief spectrum,
Fireproof from Samuel Goldwyn Films placed eighth in its second week
with $4 million from 852 screens. Several other new films failed to make the
top ten. They included Universal’s Flash of Genius, which scraped up
$2.3 million; Miramax’s Blindness, which brought in just $2 million;
and MGM’s How to Lose Friends and Alienate People, with only $1.4
million from 1,750 theaters. (The film, which stars British comedian Simon
Pegg, also opened in the U.K. with $2.1 million from just 449 theaters.) The
biggest surprise was the sold-out screenings of Rachel Getting
Married in nine theaters in New York and Los Angeles, where the movie
averaged $33,659 per theater (compared with $9,020 for Chihuahua).

The top ten films for the weekend, according to studio estimates compiled by
Media by Numbers:1. Beverly Hills Chihuahua, $29 million; 2.
Eagle Eye, $17.7 million; 3. Nick and Norah’s Infinite
Playlist, $12 million; 4. Nights in Rodanthe, $7.4 million; 5.
Appaloosa, $5 million; 6. Lakeview Terrace, $4.5 million; 7. Burn
After Reading, $4.08 million; 8. Fireproof, $4.07 million; 9.
An American Carol, $3.8 million; 10. Religulous, $3.5 million.

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