Quarantine Shuts Down DiCaprio, Crowe

Horror movie starring Dexter's sister outgrosses DiCaprio, Crowe vehicle; talking-dog flick stays atop weekend box office

Leonardo DiCaprio? Russell Crowe? Nope.

If you wanted a movie star that turned on—and turned out—the young audience this weekend, then your best option wasn't DiCaprio and Crowe, and their A-list-credentialed  Body of Lies. 

"I think they went for Quarantine, obviously," Exhibitor Relations box-office analyst Jeff Bock said today.

The $12 million horror movie "starring" a team of TV actors, led by Dexter's Jennifer Carpenter, trumped the $100 million, Ridley Scott-directed political thriller, $14.2 million to $13.1 million, per studio estimates compiled by Exhibitor Relations.

And that wasn't the worst of it for Body of Lies.

The DiCaprio-Crowe movie didn't finish second at the box office. It finished third, lorded over by both Quarantine and, um, Beverly Hills Chihuahua ($17.5 million; $52.5 million overall), which scored its second straight No. 1 weekend finish.

"Talk about a paradigm shift," Bock said.

For DiCaprio, Body of Lies was his latest under-performing thriller, after 2006's Blood Diamond.

"Look for Leo to jump into tights pretty soon," Bock said. "I think he's next in line to jump into a superhero costume."

Other box-office highlights:

• After two weekends, Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist ($6.5 million; $20.8 million overall) doesn't look like it'll make Juno money. But the Michael Cera comedy only cost $12 million to produce, and as a result, Bock joked, distributor Sony has "emo money coming out of its ears."
  
• The disastrous debut of the fantasy film City of Ember ($3.2 million) could be likened to that of The Golden Compass, except The Golden Compass opened with way more money ($25.8 million).
  
• Guy Ritchie's RocknRolla rocked in limited release, grossing $141,000 at seven theaters for the highest per-theater average of any weekend movie.
• Grubby Anne Hathaway continued to do the trick for Rachel Getting Married, which stayed hot, grossing $464,336 from 27 theaters. 
• The new football movie The Express ($4.7 million) got clotheslined. Even George Clooney's own non-hit gridiron movie, Leatherheads, opened with $12.7 million last spring. 
  
• The Billy Graham biopic, Billy: The Early Years, which managed less than $200,000 at 282 theaters, made the remarkable run of fellow Christian-courting movie, Fireproof ($3.2 million; $16.9 million overall), look all the more remarkable.
• Flash of Genius, Blindness and How to Lose Friends and Alienate People died last weekend, but, sadly, lingered, each grossing less than $800 per theater in inexplicable wide release.Take Flash of Genius out of that sentence, and the two remaining films made less than $300 per theater.
• Wall Street was down; Hollywood was up, with the top movies selling about $3.7 million more tickets compared to the same weekend last year.

Here's a recap of the top-grossing weekend films based on Friday-Sunday estimates compiled by Exhibitor Relations:

1. Beverly Hills Chihuahua, $17.5 million
2. Quarantine, $14.2 million
3. Body of Lies, $13.1 million
   
4. Eagle Eye, $11.1 million
5. Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist, $6.5 million
6. The Express, $4.7 million
7. Nights in Rodanthe, $4.6 million
8. Appaloosa, $3.34 million
9. The Duchess, $3.32 million
10. City of Ember, $3.2 million