Tyler Perry's 'Madea' locks up weekend box office
LOS ANGELES (AFP) — Tyler Perry's comedy about a grandmother behind bars, "Madea Goes to Jail," locked up the weekend box office in North America with 41 million dollars in ticket sales, preliminary figures showed on Sunday.
The latest escapades of writer-director Perry's oddball gun-toting character, Madea, opened as the clear crowd favorite, drawing 34 percent of audiences at the movies, box office tracker Exhibitor Relations said.
Snatching second place was the kidnap thriller, "Taken," starring Liam Neeson as a former spy whose daughter becomes a victim of human traffickers, bringing in 11.4 million dollars in its third weekend in theaters.
The animated children's adventure "Coraline" claimed third place with 11 million dollars.
Starring Jennifer Aniston and Drew Barrymore, the romantic comedy "He's Just Not That Into You" swept the fourth slot with its tales of modern dating disasters, earning 8.5 million in receipts.
The Oscar buzz surrounding "Slumdog Millionaire" revived the popular love story about a desperately poor Indian boy who wins huge amounts of cash, raising the film to fifth with eight million dollars.
The Danny Boyle film, which has taken in a total of 98 million dollars since it opened nine weeks ago, is widely favored to win best picture at Sunday night's Academy Awards in Hollywood.
The remake of cult 1980s horror movie "Friday the 13th" tumbled to sixth place in its second weekend, bringing in 7.8 million dollars in "one of the most precipitous declines of all time," Exhibitor Relations said.
The 12th film of the successful slasher franchise, featuring hockey mask-wearing killer Jason Voorhees once again terrorizing teenagers, had raked in 43.6 million dollars in its opening weekend, whose date aligned with the film title.
The light-hearted romantic comedy "Confessions of a Shopaholic" was worth seven million dollars in its second weekend for seventh place.
In eighth place, "Paul Blart Mall Cop" -- the tale of a security guard turned hero -- showed enduring popularity with seven million dollars in sales and a total of 121 million dollars.
The comedy debut "Fired Up," about a pair of high school football studs who join a cheerleading camp, took ninth place with six million dollars.
"The International" which features British actor Clive Owen as an Interpol agent tackling a powerful and shady bank across the globe, came in 10th, earning 4.5 million dollars.
