Paris Hilton was not so hot. Then again, neither were Kate Hudson, Matthew McConaughey and Martin Lawrence exactly.
In a blah weekend at the box office, Fool's Gold, the latest romantic-comedy pairing for Hudson and McConaughey, took the top spot with an okay $21.6 million, per studio tallies compiled Monday by Exhibitor Relations.
Lawrence's Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins, a sort of Meet His Own Parents, placed second, with $16.2 million.
Hilton's new film, meanwhile, The Hottie and the Nottie, was a definite nottie.
The comedy, the all-new tale of a gorgeous blonde and her less-attractive brunette best friend, "grossed" $27,696 at 111 theaters for an average of $250 per site. By comparison, In Bruges, the Colin Farrell hit-man comedy, grossed, in the truer sense of the word, $471,200 at only 28 theaters, an average of $16,330.
Hilton, however, can claim small victories.
For one thing, The Hottie and the Nottie was the Simple Life star's first film in three years to debut in theaters, rather than on DVD. And for another, it outperformed Jessica Simpson's Blonde Ambition, to name another recent fair-haired comedy bomb.
That was about it for the good news. The Hottie and the Nottie couldn't even match the $26,470 posted last month by Blonde and Blonder, which starred the considerable Pamela Anderson and Denise Richards.
As far as blonde movie stars go, Hudson was a league apart.
While the debut for her Fool's Gold wasn't blockbuster, it was the second best of her career, behind only How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, which not-coincidentally also costarred McConaughey.
Lawrence's Roscoe Jenkins was more on the hit side of the comic's hit-and-miss career. Of recent films, it opened way bigger than Rebound, and millions of dollars smaller than either Big Momma's House 2 or Wild Hogs.
Elsewhere:
- It looks like the kids' allowances were tapped out last weekend, as business this weekend for the 3D film, Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert (third place, $10.3 million; $53.2 million overall), fell 67 percent.
- Juno (fifth place, $5.6 million; $117.5 million overall) remained tops among Oscar contenders.
- Cloverfield's swift free fall from the top 10, and indeed the number one spot, is complete. Overall, the monster movie ($2.8 million; $76 million overall) looms as the top-grossing release of the year. All six weeks of it.
- The Vince Vaughn-branded stand-up movie, Vince Vaughn's Wild West Comedy Show, shot blanks: $464,170 at nearly 1,000 theaters, which works out to only $483 per theater.
Here's a recap of the top-grossing weekend films based on final Friday-Sunday figures compiled by Exhibitor Relations:
1. Fool's Gold, $21.6 million
2. Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins, $16.2 million
3. Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert, $10.3 million
4. The Eye, $6.5 million
5. Juno, $5.6 million
6. 27 Dresses, $5.4 million
7. The Bucket List, $5.3 million
8. Rambo, $4.5 million
9. Meet the Spartans, $4.1 million
10. There Will Be Blood, $4 million
(Originally published Feb. 10, 2008 at 11:32 a.m. PT.)