Fox went counterintuitive by releasing the male-skewing action film Taken over the Super Bowl weekend and was rewarded with a surprisingly strong debut estimated at $24.6 million.  Taken scored mixed reviews from the critics (58% on Rotten Tomatoes), but did well enough on Friday and Saturday to survive an estimated 69% drop on Sunday. 

Kevin James’ Paul Blart: Mall Cop remained strong dropping just 35% and ending up in second place after two weeks at number one.  Overall the box office total of the top 10 films was up a little over 1% from the same weekend last year when the Hannah Montana concert movie opened.

Weekend Box Office (Studio Estimates): Jan. 30 - Feb. 1, 2009

Paramount’s horror movie, The Uninvited, a remake of the Korean film A Tale of Two Sisters, finished in third place as it averaged a solid $4,485.  Gran Torino, which dropped only 47% and finished in fifth place in its 8th week of release, brought its cumulative to $110 million, making it the highest grossing film in director/star’s career (though like most modern box office “records,” this one should be taken with a grain of salt--Gran Torino's estimated 15 million admissions don’t come close to matching the 24 million paying customers accumulated by 1992’s The Unforgiven).

Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire suffered the lowest percentage drop in the top ten, falling just 28.2% as it finished in sixth place, a strong showing for a film that was showing in just 1633 theaters (thanks to its strong $4703 per theater average).  Over the weekend Boyle picked up the Director’s Guild of America Award for "Outstanding Directorial Achievement," which has proven to be an excellent predictor of Oscar success in recent years.

Last week’s #2 film, Underworld: Rise of the Lycans, suffered the biggest drop in the top ten, a precipitous 65.5% decline that was substantially more than the tumbles of its two franchise predecessors, Underworld, which fell 57% in its second week in 2003, and Underworld: Evolution, which slumped 58% in 2006.