The Game Plan beats Heartbreak Kid at the US box office

Ben Stiller’s ability to open a comedy in first place took a knock this weekend, when his new film The Heartbreak Kid failed to throw The Rock’s Disney laugher The Game Plan from its chart throne. Dwayne Johnson’s American footballer-turned-sudden-parent comedy nabbed 16.3 million in its second weekend, an impressive fall of just 29% in ticket sales.

Heartbreak makers the Farrelly brothers won’t have been all that happy with their latest, even though $14 million is a better start than 1998’s There’s Something About Mary. It meant the new movie arrived in second, just above The Kingdom, which added $9.3 million for a running total of $31.4 million. In fourth, Resident Evil: Extinction is looking like it’ll match up to Apocalypse, nabbing $4.3 million this third week.

Sadly for Fox/Walden, The Dark Is Rising wouldn’t have made it on to any planes this weekend, since it was a huge bomb – despite playing in 3,141 cinemas, it made just $3.7 million in its launch weekend, only slightly more than Good Luck Chuck, which was on 500 fewer screens and its third release week. Chuck took in $3.5 million.

Even more impressively, Feel The Noise, another new entry, arrived to $3.4 million in seventh and in just 1,015 cinemas. Eighth place went to 3:10 To Yuma, with the Western rounding up $3 million. At the bottom of the charts, The Brave One scooped $2.2 million in its fourth week, while Mr Woodcock sank down to 10th place with $2 million.