Weekend US box office report: The Proposal's surprising debut

In what is something of a surprising result, Sandra Bullock is back on top of the box office with her latest romantic comedy, The Proposal. No doubt the presence of Ryan Reynolds helped a bit too, as the comedy debuted in the top spot at the weekend box office with an impressive $34.1 million take. The movie I assumed would take top spot, Year One, managed only fourth place on $20 million. Once again, I prove I know nothing about the taste of the American people despite having been one of them for all of my life.

One thing I can attest to is the fact that this week's second place film, The Hangover, is uproariously funny. The film brought in $26.8 million this weekend, and has broken the 150 million dollar barrier in three short weeks. This is a film that came out of nowhere, proving that Todd Phillips is a hell of a comedy director.

Up landed in third place this weekend, bringing in $21.3 million. The Pixar formula still manages to be successful even as the studio takes more risks with their content, with Up passing Wall-E in total domestic grosses. Good for them! A little creativity should be rewarded, while films like the next one should be punished.

Tony Scott's $100 million remake of The Taking Of Pelham 123 is the only movie in the top five not to make over $20 million. The film's $11.3 million take has to be kind of a disappointment, considering at this rate Pelham won't get close to making its investment back in theaters. Sometimes movies shouldn't be remade, Hollywood. Unless we're talking about Star Trek (seventh place, $4.7 million), which has made over $350 million internationally, or Night At The Museum: Battle Of The Smithsonian (sixth place, $7.3 million), which has brought in a healthy $330 million across the globe. Then I guess you can remake or reimagine to your heart's content.

The lesson is that solid properties will do well. Remakes of cult 70s films aren't generally worth the risk. Neither are big-budget adaptations of campy kid's TV shows from the 60s. Land Of The Lost (eighth place, $3.976 million) has been a disaster for Will Ferrell. The latest in a string of poor performances for Will has been the most damning, as it's a very expensive movie that was the centerpiece for an ad campaign by Subway restaurants. Of course, Land Of The Lost's miserable performance in no way affects my love of sandwiches, so I doubt they're hurting too much.

Eddie Murphy is probably hurting, though. Imagine That only managed $3.1 million this weekend, good for ninth at the box office, and the film has managed only $11 million since it debuted last week. Not a good performance; even Meet Dave made (slightly) more money!

Terminator Salvation rounds out the top ten this weekend, with $3.07 million this weekend. The film has topped $280 million internationally, but the 119 million dollar US total has to be a downer for Warner Brothers. I really thought Christian Bale in a Terminator movie would've performed better than this.

Well, next weekend's box office features only two films in wide release. One of them is a drama called My Sister's Keeper that I know nothing about. The other one is going to pop up in over 4000 theaters in the US alone and will probably make a mint. That would be Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen, which promises to be bigger, louder, and dumber than even the first Transformers film! Whoo-hoo!