21 made 24.
The card-counting drama, starring Kevin Spacey, his perennial sidekick, Kate Bosworth, and Across the Universe's Jim Sturgess, topped the weekend box office with $24.1 million, per final studio figures compiled Monday by Exhibitor Relations.
Overall, business was way off from last year when Blades of Glory led the pack.
Still, 21 performed better than expected and was the only Top 10 finisher to post a decent per-screen average, taking in more than $9,000 at each of its theaters.
For Spacey and Bosworth, who have costarred in three movies together in less than four years, 21 goes down as their second-biggest debut after the art-house effort Superman Returns.
Elsewhere:
- If there's anything less successful than the President Bush's Iraq War, it's Hollywood's Iraq War movies. Stop-Loss (eighth place, $4.6 million) joins In the Valley of Elah, Redacted, Rendition, Home of the Brave and others in the neglect pile.
- The joke may have finally got old. Superhero Movie (third place, $9.5 million) is the weakest opening of all the Epic/Scary/Date spoof comedies of recent years.
- Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who! (second place, $17.7 million; $117.6 million overall) did it—it gave Hollywood its first $100 million hit of the year.
- Flawless is a flop no more. The Demi Moore-Michael Caine caper flick ($181,910) averaged an OK $5,197 at each of its 35 theaters, improving on the per-screen-average debut for the 1999 Robert De Niro-Philip Seymour Hoffman movie of the same name, per Box Office Mojo stats.
- After a solid debut, Tyler Perry's Meet the Browns (fourth place, $7.5 million; $32.5 million overall) pulled a Cloverfield and saw ticket sales plunge 61 percent.
- Vantage Point ($2.3 million, $69.3 million) ends its Top 10 run after a nifty five-week stay.
- Also falling from of the Top 10: Never Back Down ($2.4 million; $21.3 million overall) and Under the Same Moon ($2.3 million; $6.7 million overall).
- The Italian drama My Brother Is an Only Child was the biggest little hit of the weekend, grossing $9,357 at one theater.
Here's a recap of the top-grossing weekend films based on Friday-Sunday tallies compiled by Exhibitor Relations:
1. 21, $24.1 million
2. Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who!, $17.7 million
3. Superhero Movie, $9.5 million
4. Tyler Perry's Meet the Browns, $7.5 million
5. Drillbit Taylor, $5.7 million
6. Shutter, $5.3 million
7. 10,000 B.C., $4.9 million
8. Stop-Loss, $4.6 million
9. College Road Trip, $3.5 million
10. The Bank Job, $2.8 million
(Originally published March 30, 2008 at 1:55 p.m. PT.)