Jumper leaps atop US box office

It’s Presidents’ Day weekend across the pond, and while it’s not one of the bigger holidays (like, say, Thanksgiving), it’s a time for sales, no postal service and for the Valentine’s Day film releases to show what they’ve got.

While figures won’t be final until tomorrow, Jumper looks to have handily captured the nation’s geek heart, albeit only to the tune of $27.2 million ($34 million if you include the returns from Thursday onwards). That said, we doubt Fox will be jumping (har har) for joy just yet as the movie’s skyrocketing budget won’t make nabbing a profit easy. But while critical reception was severely mixed, it made almost as much money in its international release, so that’s likely something for the studio to celebrate.

Step Up 2 The Streets slipped easily into second, proving that there’s most definitely a healthy audience for dance-flavoured street smart dramas. The movie made $26.2 million since Thursday and you can bet that Step Up: We 3 (or something) will be seeing a greenlight flash any day. The Spiderwick Chronicles, meanwhile, didn’t exactly hook in the Potter-style audience that Paramount might have hoped for, but it still managed $19 million for the weekend. Fool’s Gold, meanwhile, lost 39% of its lustre, dropping to fourth and making $13 million this weekend.