Box Office Totally Obsessed with Beyoncé, Larter

Fatal Attraction-style thriller tops weekend with bigger-than-expected $28.5 million, estimates say

The fight card: Beyoncé Knowles vs. Ali Larter. The result: Hollywood wins.

Obsessed, the new-school Fatal Attraction thriller with Knowles and Larter battling it out, amped-up Angela- and Kelly-style over The Office's Idris Elba, dominated the weekend box office with a far-bigger-than-expected $28.5 million, per studio estimates.

Elsewhere, Zac Efron's 17 Again aged well, grossing another $11.7 million, while Robert Downey Jr. and Jamie Foxx's The Soloist ($9.7 million) didn't play as well as the year's other disappointing grown-up movies.

Drilling down into the numbers:

• The most optimistic projections had Obsessed bowing in the high teens. In the end, the movie had its reputed $20 million budget covered by Saturday night. 

• Obsessed is Knowles' top-grossing debut since her own film debut in Austin Powers in Goldmember.

• The XX-chromosonal types who supposedly are too interested in girly things to drive box-office business, except for Twilight, Sex and the City and any other number of titles, drove Obsessed, too. The opening-weekend audience was said to be 58 percent female. And in the mood for a good cat fight.

• 17 Again, last weekend's No. 1 film, slipped to second. Ticket sales were down the standard 51 percent. The Efron comedy has now grossed nearly $40 million overall.

• By opening with less than $10 million, the violin-tuned The Soloist failed to come close to the new low standard for adult dramas, non-porn division, as set by Russell Crowe's State of Play and Julia Roberts' Duplicity. The latter movies debuted in the $13-$14 million range, and boasted higher per-screen averages than The Soloist.  

• The Soloist marks Foxx's smallest wide-release debut since his breakout 2004 of Ray and Collateral.

• In its second weekend, State of Play ($6.9 million) actually held okay, with ticket sales down 51 percent. Its overall gross of $25.1 million, though, isn't going to sell many on the current viability of political thrillers. 

• Thinking may be out, but punching is in! Channing Tatum and Terrence Howard's Fighting ($11.4 million) bowed in third, but outgrossed second-place 17 Again, theater for theater. 

• The Disney nature movie, Earth, which opened last Wednesday, and didn't lack for furry-style fisticuffs, upped its so-far take to $14.2 million with a solid $8.6 million weekend.

• Hannah Montana: The Movie ($6.4 million) passed the $65 million mark overall.

• I Love You Man ($1.936 million) and former No. 1 movie, Knowing ($1.935 million), depart the Top 10 after five weekends each, and a Role Models-esque run of $67.8 million and a Vantage Point-esque run of $76.8 million, respectively.

• In limited release, the new Mike Tyson documentary, Tyson, did well, but not killer with a $85,982 gross at 11 theaters. The Manhattan nursery-school documentary, Nursery University, did killer, taking in $13,100 at one theater, for the weekend's highest-reported per-screen average.

• Bret Easton Ellis source material—check. Billy Bob Thornton, Kim Basinger and Mickey Rourke brand names—check. A $622 per-screen average, per Box Office Mojo, for The Informers ($300,000)—oy.

Here's a complete look at the weekend's top-grossing films based on Friday-Sunday estimates as compiled by Exhibitor Relations:

1. Obsessed, $28.5 million
2. 17 Again, $11.7 million
3. Fighting, $11.4 million
4. The Soloist, $9.7 million
5. Earth, $8.6 million
6. Monsters vs. Aliens, $8.5 million
7. State of Play, $6.9 million
8. Hannah Montana: The Movie, $6.4 million
   
9. Fast & Furious, $6.1 million
10. Crank: High Voltage, $2.4 million