21 wins big at the US box office

It wasn’t exactly the highest scoring weekend at the US box office, but gambling drama 21 still managed to win a decent prize against the odds. It arrived at number one with $23 million, which shoved Dr Seuss’ Horton Hears A Who down to second place. Horton’s team won’t be too upset, though – it only fell 29% and has $117 million in total takings so far.

Proving that the lustre might just be off spoofy, pop-culture jamming gag-fests, Superhero Movie only mustered a $9.5 million launch to take third place, despite a “produced by David Zucker” tag. That meant that Tyler Perry’s latest, Meet The Browns, sank from second to fourth, adding $7.7 million to its $32 million total.

At fifth, Drillbit Taylor managed a respectable drop of 43% to nab $5.8 million, which means it has now earned $20.5 million so far. Not exactly healthy for an Apatow production, but we’ll see how it does on DVD. At sixth, Shutter made $5.3 million for a running total of $19 million. In seventh place, 10,000 BC had to settle for $4.8 million, though it does have $85 million in its treasure cave in the US alone.

Stop-Loss arrived at eighth, suffering from a serious case of Iraq message movie fatigue syndrome. Despite an ad campaign that highlighted the good looking cast, it could only grab $4.5 million. College Road Trip drove down to ninth, with $38 million in its fund so far, and The Bank Job settled at 10th with $24 million.