Audiences Are Into ‘He’s Just Not That Into You’ With $27 Million Opening

CHICAGO – The New Line romantic comedy “He’s Just Not That Into You,” starring Ben Affleck, Jennifer Aniston, Scarlett Johansson, Bradley Cooper, Drew Barrymore, Justin Long, Jennifer Connelly, Kevin Connolly, and Ginnifer Goodwin, took the number one spot at the box office this weekend with an estimated $27.5 million and the best per screen total ($8,650) in the top ten.

“He’s Just Not That Into You” easily beat three other new films - “Coraline,” “The Pink Panther 2,” and “Push”.

Ginnifer Goodwin stars as Gigi and Justin Long stars as Alex.
Photo credit: Darren Michaels/New Line

The Liam Neeson action flick “Taken” had an amazing second weekend, dropping only 18% for a total of $20.3 million from Friday to Sunday and a remarkable $53.4 million in its first ten days of release. Word-of-mouth is clearly very positive on “Taken”.

Henry Selick’s “Coraline” tallied the second highest per screen average of the weekend and a very impressive total of $16.3 million. Great reviews for the film featuring voice work by Dakota Fanning and Teri Hatcher helped the film’s opening weekend tally.

Good reviews and word-of-mouth may have helped “Taken” and “Coraline,” but the fourth place finisher, “The Pink Panther 2” suffered from the opposite - bad reviews and proof that you can’t fool an audience twice. $12 million earned the film a fourth place finish, but that was 40% lower than the first Steve Martin remake three years ago. Audiences clearly weren’t clamoring for another “Pink Panther” movie and it seems like a third entry is now unlikely.

The biggest hit of the year, Kevin James’ “Paul Blart: Mall Cop” fell only 20% in its fourth weekend and held on to the top five with $11 million and an amazing $97 million to date. “Paul Blart” has shattered all expectations and proven that counterprogramming against serious Oscar fare in January is a smart strategy.

The final new film of the weekend, “Push” with Chris Evans and Dakota Fanning, was dead on arrival with a dismal $10.2 million in its first frame.

The rest of the top ten were filled out by “Gran Torino” ($7.4 million and $120.3 million to date), “Slumdog Millionaire” ($7.4 million and $77.4 million to date), “The Uninvited” ($6.4 million and $18.4 million to date), and “Hotel For Dogs” ($5.8 million and $55.2 million to date).

Challengers to “He’s Just Not That Into You” for next week’s box office crown include Isla Fisher’s “Confessions of a Shopaholic,” Clive Owen’s “The International,” and the Marcus Nispel remake of “Friday the 13th”.

Source: Box Office Mojo

By BRIAN TALLERICO Content Director HollywoodChicago.com brian@hollywoodchicago.com