Actual Weekend Box Office Totals

The final numbers are in - slightly different from the studio estimates:

1. Happy Feet - $41,533,432
2. Casino Royale - $40,833,156
3. Borat - $14,602,874
4. The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause - $8,302,661
5. Stranger Than Fiction - $6,605,197
6. Flushed Away - $6,596,962
7. Saw III - $2,916,062
8. Babel - $2,904,642
9. The Departed - $2,585,402
10. After Dark's Horror Fest: 8 Films to Die For - $2,310,680

Click to see the full chart.

I must say it saddened me to see that Let's Go to Prison (#11) actually ended up beating the excellent The Queen (#12), despite the fact that the initial weekend estimates gave The Queen the edge. The Queen continues to add theaters yet its grosses continue to slip, although it has done pretty well for itself so far.

And I find it flabbergasting that audiences are actually falling for this Horror Fest series. Films that were deemed too intense for theaters finally being released? Please. That's ridiculous. It's a silly marketing ploy to try to lure audiences to see films that weren't good enough to be released on their own.

Plus if they're only being released for one weekend only, why not the weekend before Halloween? That would seem more timely.

Whatever.

Anyway...all hail the penguins!