Tops at the Box Office

1. Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps- $19M
Despite having an audience that hasn't seen or heard from Gordon Gekko in 23 years, Wall Street's stock continued to trade high as it beat out Zack Snyder's Legend of the Guardians. The original Wall Street debuted at a paltry $4.3M, but that was only a fraction of the theaters. Even adjusted for inflation that amount would be tiny. So it says a lot that the Gekko character continues to have relevance even though times have clearly changed.
2. Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole- $16.3M
Not that $16M is a bad debut for Zack Snyder's gorgeously animated 3-D adventure, it's just that it's going to have a tough road making up the $100M+ budget. It's case is helped by the overwhelming number of 3-D ticktets sold, making up 72% of the total gross. Let's just say that Pixar and Dreamworks arent' exactly quaking in their boots.
3. The Town- $16M/$49.1M
Pretty much standard attrition for last week's champeen, dropping 33%. Hey, it's already more than doubled the total run of Gone Baby Gone, so that's always a plus.
4. Easy A- $10.7M/$32.8M
That's good, but not nearly good enough in my opinion. It only dropped 40%, meaning that word of mouth is keeping people going to check out Emma Stone's breakout performance.
5. You Again- $8.3M
More evidence that Kristen Bell will never be a box office draw. Also this hopefully signifies the end of this ridiculous Betty White craze.
6. Devil- $6.48M/$21.7M
Budget: rougly $10M. Worldwide gross after two weeks: $24M. Win for M. Night Shymalan.
7. Resident Evil: Afterlife- $4.9M/$52M
It's now the highest grossing film in the series. Cheers.
8. Alpha and Omega- $4.7M/$15.1M
9. Takers- $1.65M/$54.9M
10. Inception- $1.25M/$288M
Crazy that it's still hanging around.

The only other major release this week didn't fare so well...

Raunchy teen comedy The Virginity Hit couldn't even get it up, grossing only $300,000 and a $459 per site average. Ouch.

Woody Allen's latest, You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger, got off to a hot start at only 6 theaters yet grossing $215,000.

Ryan Reynolds' one-man thriller, Buried, dug up $104,500 at only 11 theaters.