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Finishing second is Julie & Julia, the new Meryl Streep/Amy Adams drama about the life of Julia Child. While not your usual blockbuster, Julie & Julia did quite welll this weekend considering the subject matter, opening the film to $20.1 million. The Columbia Pictures release debuted at only 2,354 venues and had a solid average of $8,539. Meryl Streep has become quite the box office draw in the last few years, appearing in five $20 million plus openers since 2004 (The Manchurian Candidate with a $20 million opening, Lemony Snicket with a $30 million opening, The Devil Wears Prada with a $27.5 million opening, and Mamma Mia! with a $27.8 million opening). Had this been another star in the lead role, we would have seen a platform release from the studio instead of the wide release we've seen this weekend. For Julie & Julia, it's nice to see a well-made film (74% fresh at RottenTomaotes) show some strong box office for an under-served market, and give G.I. Joe the comeuppance is so sorely needs.

It was a close race for third from a group of holdovers, one good, two bad. Third place goes to G-Force, the 3-D guinea pig movie. After a 45% plunge last weekend, G-Force endures a similar fate this weekend, as the Jerry Bruckheimer flick earned $9.8 million and fell 44% (this number couldn't be high enough). The Disney flick has now, unfortunately, earned $86.1 million, so a sequel could be coming (G-Force versus G.I. Joe: Dual of Duds?).

Finishing fourth is Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince, which is now in its fourth weekend. The Half-Blood Prince earned another $8.9 million and was off 50% compared to last weekend. Thanks to IMAX, Harry Potter recovered somewhat from its 62% plunge in its second weekend to a 39% drop last weekend, but is back to the big drop this weekend, mainly due to the launch of G.I. Joe (which is a military ad aimed at kids). The sixth film in the franchise has now become the fourth biggest, as it passed Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, which took in $262 million in 2002. Potter 6 has now earned $273.8 million on the domestic front, and crossed the $500 million mark in overseas grosses this weekend.

Funny People, which dealt with a soft opening weekend in the last frame, only gets worse this weekend. The Judd Apatow/Adam Sandler/Seth Rogen dramedy opened to a little over $22 million in the last frame, so some sort of score in the double digits must be coming this weekend, right? WRONG. Funny People earned only $7.9 million and fell a nasty 65%. All of a sudden, Funny People looks much like Bruno, except with a bigger budget at $75 million. This is now train wreck-esque, with a total so far of $40.4 million.

Another tanking comedy is The Ugly Truth. After opening to $27.6 million, the Kathering Heigl flick fell 52% in its second weekend, and didn't improve on that much this weekend. The Ugly Truth earned $7 million and dropped a large 47%. Lucky for Sony, this one cost only $40 million to make, and has a gross so far of $69.1 million, so despite being awful, it's going to make money.

Our third new release, A Pefect Getaway, finishes well back of the rest of the pack. The travelogue thriller earned a soft $5.8 million from a telling 2,159 venues. The Universal release, the studio's sixth consecutive miss at a summer hit, was not promoted or released to have an opportunity to breakout, despite reviews that were more good than bad (53% fresh at RottenTomatoes, with "top critics: at 71%). This one did have a production budget of only $14 million, so despite a soft opening, this one will work at some point down the movie business food chain. It's too bad, as the director, David Twohy, has delivered some strong films in the past (Pitch Black, Below).

Aliens in the Attic, which surpised last weekend by making the top ten in fifth with an $8 million opening, finishes eighth this weekend. Aliens earned $4 million in its second frame and was off 50%. Some reports have this film's budget at $45 million, so it has a long way to go to see profitablity.

Ninth goes to Orphan, the horror movie with a stupid twist that still manages to keep hanging around in the lower rungs of the top ten. It took in $3.73 million and fell 50%. So far, its domestic total sits at $34.8 million, which is a pretty standard number for the genre these days.

We finally have a smaller film make the top ten list this weekend and that small film is (500) Days of Summer, the romantic comedy with Zooey Deschanel and Joeseph Gordon-Levitt (who is also in G.I. Joe, but I won't hold it against him). After three weekends of limited release, Fox Searchlight put this one into 817 venues, and it earned $3.72 million and a venue average of $4,559. This one is 89% fresh at RT, as deserves to be seen by as many people as possible. It has a total so far of $12.3 million.

After an anemic couple of weekends, the box office stormed back thanks to G.I. Joe and Meryl Streep. The top 12 films this weekend earned a plentiful $133.5 million, which compares favorably to last year when The Dark Knight was on top (again) and the box office pulled in $111.4 million. Next weekend, I hope things get interesting with the launch of District 9, a film I'm stoked so see, and The Time's Traveler's Wife, a film my wife is stoked to see. Also opening are Bandslam and The Goods, with Jeremy Piven.

Top Weekend Box Office for 8/7/09-8/9/09 (Actuals)
Rank	Film	Distributor	Estimated Gross	Actual Gross	Weekly Change	Running Total
1	G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra	Paramount Pictures	$56,200,000	$54,713,046	New	$54,713,046
2	Julie & Julia	Sony/Columbia	$20,100,000	$20,027,956	New	$20,027,956
3	G-Force	Walt Disney Pictures	$9,804,000	$9,870,594	- 43.6%	$86,183,076
4	Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince	Warner Bros.	$8,880,000	$8,928,349	- 50.1%	$273,848,633
5	Funny People	Universal	$7,865,920	$7,986,435	- 64.8%	$40,537,755
6	The Ugly Truth	Columbia Pictures (Sony)	$7,000,000	$6,750,125	- 48.8%	$68,838,257
7	A Perfect Getaway	MGM	$5,764,530	$5,948,555	New	$5,948,555
8	Aliens in the Attic	Twentieth Century Fox	$4,000,000	$4,021,478	- 49.8%	$16,314,371
9	(500) Days of Summer	Fox Searchlight	$3,725,000	$3,739,702	+ 34.7%	$12,357,265
10	Orphan	Warner Bros. Pictures	$3,730,000	$3,674,306	- 51.2%	$34,766,199
11	The Hangover	Warner Bros. Pictures	$3,400,000	$3,369,178	- 35.1%	$261,979,331
12	Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen	DreamWorks Pictures	$3,000,000	$3,008,825	- 35.8%	$393,709,339
	Also Opening/Notables
	Paper Heart	Overture	$206,000	$219,494	New	$219,494
	Cold Souls	Samuel Goldwyn Pictures	$63,350	$63,302	New	$63,302
	Bliss	First Run	N/A	$7,039	New	$7,039
	Adam	Fox Searchlight	$104,000	$104,178	+ 52.4%	$242,251
	Thirst	Focus	$51,829	$54,916	New	$140,718
	The Hurt Locker	Summit Entertainment	$1,260,000	$1,260,820	- 34.0%	$8,987,925
Click here for all weekend data
Box office data supplied by Exhibitor Relations

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