30 Days Of Night takes a bite out of the US box office

It was a busy weekend at the American box office, with seven new films arriving in the charts. Only a few however, made it into the top 10, along with a rather successful re-release.

Feasting at the top of the charts was vampire pic 30 Days Of Night. Faced with some dodgy reviews and a tough, R-rated sell, the new film from Hard Candy’s David Slade rode the blood wave for a launch take of $16 million. And while that’s a decent result given the niche-heavy target audience (male teens), it was hardly spectacular.

Tyler Perry showed he still had box office strength as Why Did I Get Married saw a manageable drop of 43% for $12 million in its second week to take its current total to $38.8 million. Third place went to The Game Plan, as audiences decided to stick with what they already knew. The Disney comedy made $8.1 million in its fourth week.

Fourth place found the George Clooney thriller Michael Clayton sticking around. The film now has $21.9 million to its name. And in fifth we find the week’s other brand new top 10 entry, Ben Affleck’s directorial debut Gone Baby Gone, which arrived with a solid if unspectacular $6 million.

At sixth was the awful-looking new parody comedy The Comebacks, which took a dive in its first week with $5.8 million. If the final figures shift, The Comebacks could knock Gone Baby Gone down a spot. We Own The Night slipped down to seventh with $5.5 million this weekend and a $19.7 million total to date.

The big surprise was the 3D re-release of Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas, which drew the family crowds and managed the biggest per-screen take of any movie in the top 10. The film nabbed $5 million – not bad for something that is 14 years old and has been on DVD for years…

It managed to spark more movie-going than torture drama Rendition, which arrived in ninth with four million and was way ahead of The Heartbreak Kid, which slumped to the bottom of the charts thanks to awful word of mouth. It managed $3.9 million and has taken a paltry $32.1 million so far.