Vampires Slay Ben Affleck and Reese Witherspoon at the Box Office

Although it only took in $16 million, a modest take for a $30 million dollar movie, David Slade’s vampire movie “30 Days of Night” still managed to climb to the top of the box office over the weekend, leaving behind the vanquished corpses of Ben Affleck’s “Gone Baby Gone”, which opened in fifth place. The other week’s debuts fared little better: the Godawful looking sports movie comedy “The Comebacks” landed at #6 with $5.8 million, while Reese Witherspoon’s “the CIA is eeeeeeeeeeeevil” movie “Rendition” managed $4 million, just good enough for ninth place behind the re-release of “Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas” animated film.

Reese Witherspoon’s “Rendition” may have fell on its face, but at least it did better than Halle Berry’s “Things We Lost in the Fire”, which opened at #15 with $1.6 million. The critically acclaim film, which co-stars Benicio Del Toro, cost $16 million to make. “Rendition”, on the other hand, cost $30 million, half of which probably went to getting Witherspoon to sign on, if I had to guess.

Here’s how the Top 10 broke down over the weekend:

1 —— 30 Days Of Night —— Sony Pictures Releasing —— $16,000,000
2 —— Tyler Perry’s Why Did I Get Married? —— Lionsgate —— $12,100,000
3 —— The Game Plan —— Buena Vista Pictures Distribution —— $8,122,000
4 —— Michael Clayton —— Warner Bros. Pictures Distribution —— $7,100,000
5 —— Gone Baby Gone —— Miramax Films —— $6,000,000
6 —— The Comebacks —— 20th Century Fox Distribution —— $5,850,000
7 —— We Own the Night —— Sony Pictures Releasing —— $5,500,000
8 —— Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas —— Buena Vista Pictures Distribution —— $5,145,000
9 —— Rendition —— New Line Cinema —— $4,175,000
10 —— The Heartbreak Kid —— Paramount Pictures —— $3,900,000

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