Cloverfield kills at box office

J.J. Abrams made his latest monster movie, Cloverfield, on a relatively modest (by Hollywood standards) budget of $25 million and a handful of Sports Authority coupons, but the wise budgeting helped place the Bad Robot Productions film in the black in its first weekend. Setting an all-new record for January bows, Cloverfield raked in $41 million in its first weekend, nearly twice the take of the second film on the weekend list, fellow first-week debut film 27 Dresses, which made only $22 million.

The Jack Nicholson-Morgan Freeman buddy flick, The Bucket List, added $15 million to its take in its fourth week of release, Cloverfield nearly eclipsed that film’s total four-week take in only three days; The Bucket List has grossed $42.7 million thus far. The good news for The Bucket List is that it is holding relatively steady even after being in release for four weeks.