B.H. Chihuahua Bites No. 1 at Box Office

By Keith Williams
In the grand tradition of Beverly Hills Cops, Madams, Ninjas and Slums, the latest member of the club, Beverly Hills Chihuahua came a-yapping and barked up an estimated $29 million at 3215 Aztec kennels this weekend, pushing last week’s no 1 Eagle Eye into second place and cocking its leg up at Nick & Norah which took a less than spirited $12 million at 2421 infinite playlists.

Expectations were high for BHC and it didn’t disappoint, providing a much-needed piece of fluff to cheer up audiences freaked out by just about everything you can think of in this rapidly imploding world of ours. Euro PopMeister DJ Bobo must be especially thrilled as the film’s theme song was his biggest hit ever six years ago and now exposes him to American tastes. Paris Hilton might be less than impressed though, unless of course it was her ex-dog that starred. Does that mean we can look forward to a Chihuahua sex tape on YouTube soon?

Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist was expected to do more, but seems to have appealed mainly to girls with glasses and boys who read. Reeking of potential cultness, thanks to its moderne title, studios don’t seem to realise that audiences make cults, not them, and by mass-marketting it prevents such a thing happening. Reviews were polite, Michael Sera is popular from more neanderthal efforts like SuperBad, but somehow the raised level of intelligence this film exudes must have put off many popcorn crunchers.

Of last week’s entries, Eagle Eye fell by 39% to $17.7 million, sleeper-hopeful Nights in Rodanthe showed no sign of realising its dreams by dropping 45% to $7.3 million while over on Lakeview Terrace, intimidation faded by 35% to extort $4.5 million. At no 7 in the nation’s top ten, Burn After Reading proved the value of word-of-mouth by falling only 34% for $4 million, the same amount that faith-based Fireproof at no 8 looted on a 40.5% ecclesiastical decline.

Surprise of the Week, after Fireproof’s startling entry last week, goes to Appaloosa, the directorial debut of Ed Harris. Coming in at no 5, after 3 weeks on limited release, it lassooed an estimated $5 million from 1045 prairies, beating other new wannabes targetting the charts. Of these, David Zucker’s right-wing barrel of laffs, An American Carol bludgeoned $3.8 million at 1639 uber-rallies, Larry Clark’s docu-satire Religulous collected an impressive $3.5 million from just 502 pulpits, leaving three other new releases to trail miserably in their dust. Yes, we’re talking about you, Blindness, the feel-bad art-house pic from Fernando (City of God) Meirelles, groping a short-sighted $2 million from 1690 opticians, as well as you, Flash of Genius, which sparked up a less-than-electrifying $2.3 million at 1098 garages to prove it was no Tucker.

Disaster of the Week, even more so than the previous two entries, has to be reserved for How To Lose Friends and Alienate People which lived up to its title at 1750 publishing houses by attracting $1.4 million, i.e. virtually no-one. Good cast, a popular book it’s based on, could be the trailer alienated everyone by making Simon Pegg, its lead character, look a complete dork. That, or as Ghost Town recently showed, maybe Ricky Gervais, Pegg and other British TV comedians when they take lead roles in US feature films have yet to be accepted by ticket-buying audiences.

Weekend estimates courtesy boxofficemojo.com