Ring the alarm–Obsessed is the weekend’s top-grossing movie.
If the whole “music superstar” thing doesn’t work out, Beyonce Knowles can take heart in knowing that she apparently has a long career ahead of her playing wives that aren’t afraid to kick a little ass when some skinny bitch tries to break up their marriage. Thanks largely to that catfight-heavy trailer, Obsessed was the movie of choice this weekend, capturing the top spot with almost $30 million–Beyonce’s best opening since the third Austin Powers movie way back in 2002. Last week’s champ Zac Efron fell to second place, but there’s good news for the teen idol: 17 Again held up better its second weekend than Hannah Montana: The Movie, which went from first to fourth last week and dropped to eighth its third week out. The film’s $65.6 million total gross puts it on par with last year’s Hannah Montana concert movie. So if the ceiling for a Hannah Montana flick is $70 million, what’s the limit for a plain old Miley Cyrus picture? Guess we’ll have to wait until next year’s The Last Song–her first non-Hannah star turn–to find out.
A pair of new releases, the fight movie Fighting and the music-themed melodrama The Soloist, landed in third and fourth place respectively, while Earth, the flagship nature documentary from the recently formed Disneynature unit, rounded out the top five with a strong $8.5 million showing. Another family-friendly film, DreamWorks’ Monsters vs. Aliens finished in sixth place, creeping closer and closer to the $200 million mark. Russell Crowe’s star continues to dim as the political thriller State of Play sank like a stone from second to seventh place. A similar fate befell Crowe’s last film, Body of Lies, which ended its run with an anemic $40 million. At this point, the Aussie actor had better hope that his next film Robin Hood is a massive hit or he might have to call up his old group 30 Odd Foot of Grunts and beg them to let him back in the band. In what is likely to be its last week in the Top Ten, Fast & Furious pinwheeled across the finish line in ninth place and just squeaked by the original Fast and the Furious to become the highest-grossing entry in the franchise. Finally, Crank: High Voltage finished in tenth place, just ahead of I Love You, Man. Expect to see both movies on DVD in the not too distant future.
The full Top Ten is below, courtesy of the-numbers.com. Next weekend, the summer movie season officially arrives as the beleaguered superhero adventure X-Men Origins: Wolverine finally arrives in theaters, hoping to bring in all the moviegoers who haven’t already illegally downloaded the leaked, incomplete version.
The Top Ten: April 24-26, 2009
1. Obsessed: $28.5
2. 17 Again: $11.7/$39.9
3. Fighting: $11.4
4. The Soloist: $9.7
5. Earth: $8.5
6. Monsters vs. Aliens: $8.5/$174.8
7. State of Play: $6.9/$25.1
8. Hannah Montana: The Movie: $6.3/$65.6
9. Fast & Furious: $6.1/$145.2
10. Crank: High Voltage: $2.4/$11.5
Click here to read GIANT’s review of Obsessed
Click here to see exclusive behind-the-scenes video of Obsessed star Idris Elba
Click here to see exclusive behind-the-scenes video of Obsessed star Beyonce Knowles
