For the second week straight, Martin Scorsese’s thriller Shutter Island topped the box office, again confirming the wisdom of the studio executives who decided to push its release from October of last year to mid-February of this year. With $22.2 million in receipts, the film dipped 46% from the previous weekend—not great, but modest by today’s standards—and could wind up close to the $132 million grossed by Scorsese and star Leonardo DiCaprio’s last film, the Oscar-winning The Departed. That was enough to top Kevin Smith’s retro ‘80s buddy picture Cop Out, which opened in second with $18.6 million, despite an aggressive marketing tie-in with Southwest Airlines. Smith collected his unkindest reviews since Jersey Girl, but his ability to do things on the cheap (this one cost $30 million) ensure the film will make a profit. Ditto the #3 film The Crazies, a surprisingly well-received horror remake that brought in $16.5 million on its opening weekend (and outpaced Cop Out in per screen average, at $6670 to $5890) and only cost $20 million to make. In all, it was one of those rare weekends where none of the top movies set the world on fire, but everyone was a winner anyway.
In limited release, the Cannes favorite A Prophet opened strong with $18,999 per screen on nine screens for a total of $170,000. Buoyed by excellent reviews across the board—you really need to see it (yes, we’re talking to you)—the French prison drama seems poised to do solid arthouse business and turn up on some year-end lists in another nine months. Also performing well: Roman Polanski’s The Ghost Writer, which added 39 screens on its second week and didn’t flag a bit, collecting the week’s strongest per-screen-average at $20,200.
For more detailed numbers, visit Box Office Mojo.