Thursday's Academy Award nominations lifted "Slumdog Millionaire" this weekend; the film racked up $10.6 million in ticket sales as it moved into an additional 829 theaters. Meanwhile, that comedy about a dumpy security guard continued its rampage at the box office: Sony’s "Paul Blart: Mall Cop" brought in $21.5 million in its second weekend in theaters for a total of $64.8 million, according to Media By Numbers.
Sony's third installment of the werewolf-vampire love tale "Underworld: Rise of the Lycans" pulled in $20.7 million. The franchise's first film debuted in 2003 with $21.8 million and had a first-weekend take of $26.9 million in 2006.
Paramount's "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" -- which swept the Oscar nominations with 13 nods -- added a mere $6 million to its $111 million total, while Universal's "Frost/Nixon" climbed 351%. But even six Oscar nominations couldn't help the sagging "Doubt," whose ticket sales fell 31% to $852,000 in its seventh week.
Ticket sales were up 13.8% this week as compared with last year, and attendance was boosted 20.9%.
Rank Name Weeks Gross Per Screen Avg. Total 1 Paul Blart: Mall Cop (Sony) 2 $21.5m $6,838 $64.8m 2 Underworld: Rise of the Lycans (Screen Gems) 1 $20.7m $7,036 $20.7m 3 Gran Torino (Warner Bros.) 7 $16.0m $5,255 $97.6m 4 Hotel for Dogs (Paramount/DreamWorks) 2 $12.4m $3,779 $37.0m 5 Slumdog Millionaire (Fox Searchlight) 11 $10.6m $7,477 $55.9m 6 My Bloody Valentine 3-D (Lionsgate) 2 $10.1m $3,966 $37.7m 7 Inkheart (Warner Bros.) 1 $7.7m $2,910 $7.7m 8 Bride Wars (Fox) 3 $7.0m $2,671 $48.7m 9 The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (Paramount) 5 $6.0m $2,651 $111.0m 10 Notorious (Fox Searchlight) 2 $5.7m $3,473 $31.8m
