Jodie Foster Roars at Box Office

Sandra Bullock couldn't do it. Neither could Jane Fonda, Diane Keaton or Nicole Kidman. But Jodie Foster did.

Foster's The Brave One topped the weekend box office with $13.5 million, per final Exhibitor Relations tallies Monday, marking the first time this year that a movie toplined by an actress outpaced the competition.

By Foster's standards, The Brave One's opening was unspectacular. Her two previous films, 2005's Flightplan and 2006's Inside Man, both enjoyed significantly bigger debuts. In fact, of her recent movies, only Anna and the King, a box-office dud from 1999, posted a smaller opening weekend ($5.2 million, according to Box Office Mojo stats).

But a win was a win. Foster's turn as a Charles Bronson-esque revenge seeker in The Brave One played much bigger than Kevin Bacon's like-minded Death Sentence, which opened last month. It also broke a yearlong, 40-week winning streak perpetuated by male figure skaters (Blades of Glory), male turtles (TMNT), male rats (Ratatouille), male pirates (Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End), a man dressed as a spider (Spider-Man 3), a man dressed as a woman (Norbit), men barely clad as Spartan warriors (300), four midlife-crisis-suffering men on bikes (Wild Hogs), one flaming-skull-afflicted man on a bike (Ghost Rider) and Shia LaBeouf (Disturbia and Transformers), among others.

Kirsten Dunst (Spider-Man 3) and Katherine Heigl (Knocked Up) starred in chart-topping hit movies, as did other actresses, but both shared billing and storyline with male counterparts.

Among actresses who were their movies' biggest stars, Sandra Bullock posted 2007's biggest opening weekend to date, with $17.6 million for Premonition. But going up against surprisingly stiff competition in March (see 300 and Wild Hogs), the thriller could do no better than a third-place debut.

Other actress-driven movies that failed to win a weekend, if not outright failed: Diane Keaton's Because I Said So... ($13.1 million debut), Catherine Zeta-Jones' No Reservations ($11.7 million), Jane Fonda's Georgia Rule ($6.8 million) and Nicole Kidman's The Invasion ($6 million).

The top-grossing movies to even feature female forms on their posters—Shrek the Third, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and The Simpsons Movie—didn't even really feature women, as Shrek and The Simpsons' ladies are cartoons, and Harry Potter's are girls.

3:10 to Yuma, starring men Russell Crowe and Christian Bale, didn't want for the female touch in its second weekend. Last weekend's box-office champ held up nicely, taking in another $8.9 million ($28.3 million overall) for a second-place finish.

Despite its manly title, Mr. Woodcock, the new Billy Bob Thornton gym-teacher comedy, opened third, with $8.8 million.

Dragon Wars, a Korean-made monster movie that's already taken in more than $50 million worldwide, didn't fire up too much of its presumed male fan base in its U.S. debut, with $5 million (fifth place).

Elsewhere, Shoot 'Em Up ($2.6 million; $10.4 million overall) spent its ammo quickly, falling out of the top 10 in only its second weekend. The Nanny Diaries ($2.1 million; $23.9 million overall) didn't hang around much longer.

In limited release, director David Cronenberg's Toronto Film Festival-topping Eastern Promises, starring Viggo Mortensen and Naomi Watts, saw its big buzz translate into relative big bucks with $547,092 at 15 theaters. Its per-screen average of $36,473 blew away the major-release likes of The Brave One ($4,890).

Across the Universe, Julie Taymor's arty love story set to the music of the Beatles, was another art-house blockbuster, with $667,784 at 23 theaters to average $29,034.

But Daniel Radcliffe's non-Potter outing in December Boys failed to conjure much interest, averaging just $3,953 at four theaters for a total of $15,810.

Here's a rundown of the top 10 films based on final Friday-Sunday studio figures compiled by Exhibitor Relations:

1. The Brave One, $13.5 million
2. 3:10 to Yuma, $8.9 million
3. Mr. Woodcock, $8.8 million
4. Superbad, $5.1 million
5. Dragon Wars, $5 million
6. Halloween, $4.9 million
7. The Bourne Ultimatum, $4.1 million
8. Balls of Fury, $3.32 million
9. Rush Hour 3, $3.3 million
10. Mr. Bean's Holiday, $2.7 million

(Originally published Spet. 16, 2007 at 3:12 p.m. PT.)