When a rundown of Hollywood's top-paid actresses was released last month, Jennifer Aniston wasn't in the top five. How fortunate for her.
Aniston scored her third straight No. 1 movie as the anti-romantic comedy He's Just Not That Into You topped the weekend box office with $27.5 million, per studio estimates compiled today by Exhibitor Relations.
Elsewhere, Coraline ($16.3 million) was as strong in its debut as Paul Blart: Mall Cop ($11 million) was sturdy in its fourth week.
More numbers, factoids and reasons for Aniston to chortle:
• True, He's Just Not That Into You was an ensemble film, not a Jennifer Aniston film, but even as such it's one more No. 1 movie than Katherine Heigl, Cameron Diaz, Julia Roberts or old chum Angelina Jolie have had in the last year. Or more.
• Heigl, Roberts, Diaz and Jolie all outranked Aniston on the Hollywood Reporter's 2008 pay list. Jolie finished No. 1; Aniston, No. 6. Of the top five, only Reese Witherspoon (No. 3) had a No. 1 movie last year (Four Christmases).
• He's Just Not That Into You is Aniston's latest No. 1 film after 2006's The Break-Up and the still-playing Marley & Me.
• Based on a line from TV's Sex and the City, He's Just Not That Into You didn't come close to the $57 million debut posted by the series' movie version last summer. But it did exceed expectations. "Everyone I talked to thought it would do in low 20s," Paul Dergarabedian, box-office analyst for Hollywood.com, said today.
• Who knew Liam Neeson would click so well as the new Charles Bronson? Neeson's Taken, last weekend's No. 1 film, slipped only one place, to No. 2, and picked up another $20.3 million.
• Maybe Neeson's been taking lessons from Paul Blart. Taken was down only 18 percent from last week. Paul Blart was down only 21 percent, and pushed up its haul to $97 million.
• Yes, Coraline opened at No. 3, but to its proud parents at Focus Features, it'll always be the top-debuting, wide-releasing, stop-motion film, if you go by per-screen average and not overall gross, in movie history. So there.
• For the stop-motion faithful, it will be noted Chicken Run made more in its debut weekend than Coraline, but boasted a slightly lower per-screen average, and it will be further noted Tim Burton's Corpse Bride boasted a far bigger per-screen average, but didn't go wide until its second weekend.
• That Steve Martin managed a $20 million debut for 2006's much-maligned The Pink Panther arguably remains a bigger surprise than the fact he only managed a $12 million debut for this weekend's more-maligned sequel, The Pink Panther 2.
• The Heroes-esque action-thriller Push ($10.2 million) will not be Summit's next Twilight-ian blockbuster, but it should do all right by its modest budget.
• The new comedy Fanboys waited a long time to get released. For its wait, it got 44 theaters, a $164,000 gross and a so-so $3,727 per-theater average.
• Slumdog Millionaire ($7.4 million) aside, not another of Oscar's Best Picture contenders grossed as much per screen as Fanboys.
• Movies exiting the Top 10 include Renee Zellweger's already old-hat New in Town ($3.3 million), which departs after just one weekend and a $11.9 million overall take.
Here's a recap of the holiday weekend's top-grossing films based on Friday-Sunday estimates from Exhibitor Relations:
- He's Just Not That Into You, $27.5 million
- Taken, $20.3 million
- Coraline, $16.3 million
- The Pink Panther 2, $12 million
- Paul Blart: Mall Cop, $11 million
- Push, $10.2 million
- Slumdog Millionaire, $7.4 million
- Gran Torino, $7.2 million
- The Uninvited, $6.4 million
- Hotel for Dogs, $5.8 million
(Originally published Feb. 8, 2009 at 11:15 a.m. PT.)