In yet another feeble weekend session the Jodie Foster thriller, Flightplan, dropped only 38% and easily captured the box office crown for a second week in a row earning an estimated $15 million, the lowest winning total so far this year.  Joss Whedon's Serenity posted a slightly higher per theater average ($4,634 vs. $4,391) but finished well behind Flightplan with an estimated $10.1 million.  Serenity's total dropped from Friday to Saturday, which indicates that the strong marketing push did manage to get the fans jazzed about the film, but also that the film's fan base may be small.  However Serenity's mediocre opening doesn't necessarily spell doom for Serenity-based merchandise in pop culture stores, since the Serenity audience demographic -52% over 30, 61% male -- is a good match, and audience surveys indicate that the fans love the film with 88% rating it 'excellent' or 'very good.'

Meanwhile David Cronenberg's A History of Violence, which expanded to 1,340 theaters, performed well finishing in fourth place (behind Tim Burton's Corpse Bride, which dropped 49% and earned $9.75 million).  A History of Violence, which is based on the graphic novel, posted a very strong $6,119 per theater average, the highest average of any film in wide distribution.