Four new films ruled the box office this past weekend —
each topping eight figures, which has to be some sort of record for September.
Burn After Reading, the Coen brothers' follow-up to the Oscar-winning
No Country for Old Men, earned the top spot, bringing in an estimated $19.1 million to edge out Tyler Perry's
The Family That Preys, which slotted second with $17.4 million. Playing at almost 1,100 fewer screens than the latter film, Al Pacino and Robert De Niro's
Righteous Kill committed wallet robbery to the tune of $16.3 million. Diane English's star-studded ensemble
The Women, meanwhile, debuted to $10.1 million.
After that quartet of films, there was a steep drop-off. Ben Stiller's R-rated ensemble war comedy
Tropic Thunder, which my dad inexplicably hated, by way of explaining only that "it wasn't funny," placed fifth. The movie added an estimated $4.2 million to its total haul, which now stands at $103 million domestically. Rounding out the top 10 were Anna Faris'
The House Bunny, with $4.15 million ($42 million overall);
Christopher Nolan's
The Dark Knight
, with $4.13 million ($517.8 million overall); Nicolas Cage's
Bangkok Dangerous, with $2.6 million ($12. 6 million overall); Don Cheadle's very
Bourne-flavored
Traitor, with $2.1 million ($20.7 million overall); and Jason Statham's
Death Race, with $2 million and change ($33.2 million overall). Expected to take the top spot this coming weekend is the bad-neighbor drama
Lakeview Terrace, with writer-director David Koepp's
Ghost Town, starring Ricky Gervais and Greg Kinnear, providing competition.
