The Stateside box office got a swift kick in the unmentionables this weekend as the Jackass team returned and stormed cinemas to take top place. With $28.1 million, Jackass Number Two had a more successful opening than the 2002 original and showed that there’s clearly still an audience for the likes of Steve-O and Wee Man risking their lives against snakes, bulls and high velocity projectiles.
A man who’s also made a career out of high-risk activity is Jet Li, and his latest martial arts epic – Fearless – arrived in second place with $10.5 million. Third went to one of the week’s success stories, as Dwayne Johnson’s Gridiron Gang – a true-life tale of a prison officer trying to sort out gang kids by recruiting them to an American Football team – continued to strike a chord with US audiences, landing in third for its second week. With $9.7 million this weekend, that means it’s up to $27 million in 10 days.
Sputtering into fourth was MGM’s big indie gamble Flyboys. The Dean Devlin-produced story of a squad of World War One cockpit jockeys could only make $6 million. At fifth, we find Everyone’s Hero, the baseball ‘toon executive produced by Christopher Reeve before his death. It managed $4.6 million for the weekend.
Sixth place was The Black Dahlia, and Brian De Palma’s dark noir is falling fast, grabbing just $4.4 million for the weekend for a paltry current total of $17.2 million. Not exactly thrilling figures for a true-crime thriller. But that’s healthier than All The King’s Men, written and directed by Steven Zaillian. After a year on the shelf and numerous edits following unsuccessful test screenings, the film was finally buried by mixed word of mouth and low interest. It grossed just $3.8 million in seventh.
In Eighth place, Renny Harlin’s super-powered thriller The Covenant conjured up $3.3 million for its third week, while ninth and 10th place were taken by The Illusionist and Little Miss Sunshine, the twin indies finally looking like they’ll drop from the charts after big success – particularly Sunshine, which now has more than $50 million to its name.
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