The commercials look awful but that didn’t stop Kevin James as Paul Blart from winning a hotly contested box office weekend.
Paul Blart: Mall Cop raked in an estimated $33.8 million over the weekend proving Kevin James is capable of branching out on his own. The PG comedy beat out Clint Eastwood’s Gran Torino, Notorious and My Bloody Valentine 3-D, all of which raked in over $20 and are rated R.
Add it all up with the remainder films and the record for box office cash during Martin Luther King Jr. weekend has fallen to the tune of nearly $200 million.
Hotel For Dogs laid claim to the #5 spot with an impressive $17.7 million which on any other weekend might have secured it a higher spot. Clearly tikes were more interested in a rotund mall security officer than a seas of pups.
The full top ten list shakes out as follows.
- 1. Paul Blart: Mall Cop: $33.8m
- 2. Gran Torino: $22.2m
- 3. My Bloody Valentine 3-D: $21.9m
- 4. Notorious (2009): $21.5m
- 5. Hotel for Dogs: $17.7m
- 6. Bride Wars: $11.7m
- 7. The Unborn (2009): $9.8m
- 8. Defiance: $9.2m
- 9. Marley and Me: $6.3m
- 10. Slumdog Millionaire: $5.9m
Next week sees the Lycans Rise in the Underworld sequel square off against Warners’s delayed but finally herefamily friendly Inkheart fantasy adventure.
