Never mind the planes, boats and Coaster furniture that was wrecked during production … it turns out viewers loved Fool’s Gold, the Matthew McConaughy / Kate Hudson romantic comedy enough to give the first-week release top honors at the box office the weekend before Valentine’s Day, to the tune of approximately $22 million. The first-week release, Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins, starring Martin Lawrence, also proved popular with a $17.1 million reception, good enough for second place.
Business was down significantly for the Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus concert film, though it took third place with over $10 million, while chiller-thriller The Eye, starring Jessica Alba, took in over $6 million to seal away fourth place. Underdog indy comedy Juno moved up a spot, showing remarkable staying power in its 10th week of release as Oscar buzz builds around it, taking in $5.72 million to edge out 27 Dresses. Juno is the highest-grossing movie currently in the Top 5, having garnered $117 million to date.
Rambo dropped to eighth place and Meet the Spartans to ninth place in their third weeks of release. Rambo, which cost $50 million to make, has only raked in $36 million domestically and will likely need to rely on overseas and home video sales to get into the black. Unlike last year’s Rocky Balboa, it appears Rambo was not re-embraced by nostalgic Sylvester Stallone fans.
