Sci-Fi Cloverfield Steals the Weekend Box Office 

By Laurie A. Trotta

The weekend winner for movie box office grosses is “Cloverfield,” which took in a studio estimated $41 million, for the period ended Jan. 20, industry sources reported. The gross is $10 million more than projected and made “Cloverfield” an easy winner over the bridesmaid comedy “27 Dresses.”

Shot with a no-name cast and handheld cameras, the J.J. Abrams-produced sci-fi thriller was seen in the industry as an experiment in marketing, because the first trailers gave away no plot points or even the title of the movie, which sparked debate and discussion, according to USA Today’s Scott Bowles.

The Katherine Heigl romantic comedy “27 Dresses” nearly doubled expectations by earning $22 million. The Jack Nicholson-Morgan Freeman comedy “The Bucket List” gave up its first position, but remains a strong performer, placing third with $15.2 million. “Juno,” the teenage pregnancy comedy in its fourth weekend, took in $10.3 million, good for fourth place; and “National Treasure: Book of Secrets” was fifth with $8.1 million.

Chart source: TheNumbers.com The table lists the movie, studio, genre, weekly gross, number of theaters, per screen average and total.

1	Cloverfield	Paramount Pictures	Action	$41,000,000	3,411	$12,020	$41,000,000
2	27 Dresses	20th Century Fox	Romantic Comedy	$22,427,000	3,057	$7,336	$22,427,000
3	The Bucket List	Warner Bros.	Comedy	$15,150,000	2,915	$5,197	$42,709,000
4	Juno	Fox Searchlight	Comedy	$10,250,000	2,534	$4,045	$85,376,533
5	National Treasure: The Book of Secrets	Buena Vista	Adventure	$8,148,000	2,963	$2,750	$198,030,000
6	First Sunday	Sony/Screen Gems	Comedy	$7,800,000	2,213	$3,525	$28,466,000
7	Mad Money	Overture Films	Comedy	$7,700,000	2,470	$3,117	$7,700,000
8	Alvin and the Chipmunks	20th Century Fox	Comedy	$7,000,000	2,962	$2,363	$196,380,181
9	I am Legend	Warner Bros.	Horror	$5,105,000	2,525	$2,022	$247,682,000
10	Atonement	Focus Features	Drama	$4,759,407	1,291	$3,687	$31,884,214