Box Office: "Semi-Pro" beats competiton, takes lead

By Franck Tabouring

Weekend of February 29 - March 2

Will Ferrell’s latest sports comedy “Semi-Pro” leaped to the top of the North American box office this weekend, but it failed to match up to the openings of his previous hits “Blades of Glory” and “Talladega Nights.”   

The Kent Alterman-directed film released by New Line Cinema, which stars Ferrell as owner and coach of an incompetent basketball team, earned $15.2 million from ticket sales at 3,121 locations. That’s about half of the $33 million opening weekend gross of “Blades of Glory,” and approximately a third of the $47 million opening of “Talladega Nights.”

Last week’s box office champion “Vantage Point” dropped to No. 2 with $13 million, lifting its domestic gross to $41 million after two weeks in release. The terrorism action spectacle directed by Pete Travis centers on eight strangers who get tangled up in an assassination attempt on the U.S. president.

At No. 3, Mark Waters’ family adventure “The Spiderwick Chronicles” collected $8.7 million. The Paramount release based on the books by Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi reached a cumulative gross of $55 million after a solid three-week run.

New entry “The Other Boleyn Girl” debuted in fourth place this weekend, pulling $8.3 million from admissions at only 1,166 theaters. The period drama directed by Justin Chadwick and starring Scarlett Johansson and Natalie Portman tells the story of two sisters who compete for the affection of King Henry VIII.

Meanwhile, Doug Liman’s “Jumper” tumbled to No. 5 with $7.6 million. The 20th Century Fox film, starring Hayden Christensen as a young man who can teleport himself, brought its total haul to $66.8 million after three weeks in theaters.

Walt Disney’s “Step Up 2 the Streets” ranked in sixth, taking home $5.7 million from 2,528 sites and reaching a domestic total of $48.5 million. Jon Chu’s sequel to the 2006 smash hit is just $17 million shy of its predecessor’s $65 million cumulative.

Andrew Tennant’s adventure comedy “Fool’s Gold” slipped to seventh place this weekend with $4.4 million, while “No Country For Old Men” jumped back to No. 8 with $4.1 million.

Two films rounded out the top ten: new entry “Penelope,” which debuted in ninth place with $3.8 million, and “Definitely, Maybe,” which collected $3.3 million and lifted its cumulative gross to $26.6 million after a three-week run.