Race to Witch Mountain, Disney’s "re-imagining" of the 1975 Escape to Witch Mountain, topped the weekend box office with a relatively modest estimated take of $25 million, while Watchmen dropped 67.3% to an estimated $18.1 million to finish in second place ahead of a second 70s remake, the horror film Last House on the Left, which ended the weekend with an estimated $14.7 million.  Overall the box office was off sharply, falling to a 13-year low for this frame, a good 17% behind last year when Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who managed a $45 million debut.

Weekend Box Office (Studio Estimates): March 13-15, 2009

Rank	Film	Weekend Gross	Screens	Avg./Screen
1	Race to Witch Mountain	$25,000,000	3,187	$7,844
2	Watchmen	$18,070,000	3,611	$5,004
3	The Last House on the Left	$14,658,000	2,401	$6,105
4	Taken	$6,650,000	2,858	$2,327
5	Tyler Perry's Madea Goes to Jail	$5,130,000	2,203	$2,329
6	Slumdog Millionaire	$5,025,000	2,578	$1,949
7	Paul Blart: Mall Cop	$3,100,000	2,281	$1,359
8	He's Just Not That Into You	$2,905,000	1,890	$1,537
9	Coraline	$2,655,000	1,768	$1,502
10	Miss March	$2,350,000	1,742	$1,349

Watchmen’s steep drop-off was foretold in the film’s steep decline from its Friday night opening during its opening weekend (see “'Watchmen' Underwhelms Box Office”).  Although major declines are increasingly typical of heavily advertised action films (Watchmen helmer Zack Snyder’s 300 fell 54% in its second frame) Watchmen’s fall is one of the steepest in superhero film history.  Ang Lee’s Hulk and Guillermo del Toro’s Hellboy II: The Golden Army are the only two major superhero movies that suffered bigger declines during their second weekend in theaters.  Even Watchmen’s IMAX showings, which were sold out during its opening weekend, fell off, though by a more modest 58%. 

 

Still Watchmen has made more than $86 million domestically, exposing the property to a far wider audience than it ever reached in its comic book incarnation.  Sales of the Watchmen graphic novel have been so strong that it is already a lock to be the top-selling book in the category for 2009, and the film is good enough that it should do well on DVD.  That portion of the mainstream audience unwilling to go to theaters to check out a superhero film that features characters they have never heard of, might well be tempted to rent or purchase it on DVD.

 

Race to Witch Mountain scored a B+ CinemaScore, which bodes well for its future performance.  Star Dwayne Johnson and director Andy Fickman's previous collaboration for Disney, The Game Plan, earned 4 times its opening weekend gross, which gives Race to Witch Mountain a potential shot at the $100 million mark.  Race attracted an audience that was 60% female and 56% under the age of 25 with a good two-thirds of the crowd made up of parents and their children. 

 

Despite opening on Friday the 13th, Last House on the Left’s opening weekend total didn’t match the performances of other recent horror remakes, and its “B” CinemaScore indicates that it could drop out of the top ten quickly.

 

Fox’s thriller Taken dropped off just 9% and came in at number 4, making it the first film since The Dark Knight to finish in the top five for seven straight weeks.  Taken and Sony’s Paul Blart: Mall Cop are the surprise hits of 2009 so far, and it appears that Taken ($127 million) may eventually catch Paul Blart ($138 million).

 

Henry Selick’s adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s Coraline finished in ninth place.  The stop motion animated feature has remained in the top ten for six weeks and looks like it may reach the $80 million mark domestically.

 

A film to watch is Sunshine Cleaners, a new release from the folks who produced the indie smash, Little Miss Sunshine.  Sunshine Cleaners averaged a spectacular $35,000 from just four theaters—limited openings typically generate great per-theater grosses, but this is particularly strong debut.  The film expands to 15 theaters next weekend, which should provide additional clues as to whether Sunshine Cleaners will be the first indie breakout film of 2009.