Columbia PicturesChanning Tatum's and Jonah Hill's 21 Jump Street collared an estimated $35 million in its Friday-Sunday debut.
The big-screen take on the 1980s Johnny Depp cop series finished No. 1 at the weekend box office, and raised a question.
Is Tatum the new biggest star in Hollywood?
He is this spring.
21 Jump Street is Tatum's second No. 1 film in as many months, after The Vow.
It is his fourth career box-office champ since 2009's G.I. Joe: The Rise of the Cobra.
A G.I. Joe sequel is due out this summer, and should extend his No. 1 streak to three-for-three.
A 21 Jump Street sequel is already in the works.
Somewhere, Shia LaBeouf, his beard and his streak of one bajillion No. 1 movies is feeling the heat.
Elsewhere, Jason Segal should've made a Spanish-language comedy, Nicolas Cage should've made a Channing Tatum movie and John Carter really should've made a lot more money.
Segal's stoner-slacker tribute Jeff Who Lives at Home grossed a soft $840,000 at about 250 theaters.
Cage's vigilante thriller Seeking Justice, costarring Mad Men's January Jones, was dumped in 231 theaters, and made just $260,000. It is Cage's second disappointment in as many months, after Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, which, in fairness, did end up making back its budget, something the reportedly $30 million Seeking Justice probably doesn't stand a chance of doing in theaters.
With just $179.3 million in the bank now (including overseas grosses), the $250-million John Carter is achieving the flop status it didn't quite qualify for last weekend.
Will Ferrell's R-rated Spanish-language comedy Casa de mi Padre, meanwhile, did pretty bueno for an R-rated Spanish-language comedy, unexpectedly cracking the Top 10 despite opening at fewer than 400 theaters.
Juan of the Dead, an unrated, un-Will Ferrell, Spanish-language comedy, was another success story, grossing $12,007 at one theater.
Dr. Seuss' The Lorax, Act of Valor, Denzel Washington's Safe House and Dwayne Johnson's Journey 2: The Mysterious Island continued to show staying power.
The extreme teen-party flick Project X lost some of its buzz, with ticket sales plunging 64 percent from last weekend. This development presumably was good news for anxious home-owning parents. (Better not tell Dad that the Hollywood-cheap film has now grossed nearly $50 million domestically.)
In its second weekend, the ensemble comedy Friends With Kids did better than Seeking Justice, but not that much better. (Friends With Kids costars Jones' Mad Men ex-spouse, Jon Hamm.) The comedy's grossed $4.3 million to date.
Tatum's The Vow dropped out of the Top 10 after a five-weekend stay. To date, the romantic drama is 2012's second-biggest hit of the year, having grossed $121.1 million domestically.
Here's the rundown of the weekend's top movies, per Friday-Sunday domestic estimates as reported by the studios and Exhibitor Relations:
- 21 Jump Street, $35 million
- Dr. Seuss' The Lorax, $22.8 million
- John Carter, $13.5 million
- Project X, $4 million
- A Thousand Words, $3.8 million
- Act of Valor, $3.7 million
- Safe House, $2.8 million
- Journey 2: The Mysterious Island, $2.5 million
- Casa de mi Padre, $2.2 million
- This Means War, $2.1 million