The Bucket List tops the US box office

If there’s one person who’ll be happy this weekend (aside from all those Globe winners), it’s Rob Reiner - who, after a few years of walking the box office turkey wilderness, has scored a number one.

The film is The Bucket List, which finds Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson as terminally ill codgers determined to see out their last days in fine style. The movie snagged the lead in a close race with Ice Cube’s latest comedy franchise First Sunday, with The Bucket List making $19.5 million and Sunday arriving with $19 million for a healthy weekend at the box office.

That meant indie sensation Juno got pushed to third, but with a $14 million weekend (and a week which saw it at the top of the charts each day) the movie has now taken in $71.2 million and is well on the way to toppling Fox Searchlight’s previous champ (that would be Sideways), with the record standing at $71.5 million.

And, after three weeks sitting pretty at the top of the charts, National Treasure: Book Of Secrets slipped to fourth, adding $11.5 million to its stuffed coffers, which are already full of $187.3 million. Anyone say threequel? Shudder… Talking of shudders, the box office behemoth that is Alvin And The Chipmunks clung on there to make fifth place. And I Am Legend starts a slide down the charts, landing at sixth place with a current haul of $240 million.

On the other end of the success scale, we find dodgy J-horror remake One Missed Call, which shed 50% of business from its first week to collapse into seventh place, with a running total of $20.6 million, while PS I Love You made it to eighth with $5 million and a decent take of $47 million so far.

At the bottom of the charts, we find those Veggie Tales with their new outing The Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything. The Veggie who? You may or may not remember their first movie, which came out five years ago. This new entry lived up to its name and didn’t really do anything, making just $4.4 million. That put it just above Atonement, which has made $25.2 million to date.