With millions of copies sold, the Harry Potter book series does more than magically fly off the shelves, it has also been a force at the box office, on television, on the web, and even at the record stores. Similarly, a recent book series and film franchise, Twilight, has shown an ability to not only sell books, but also have an impact on the big screen and iPods as its brooding soundtrack has outsold the movie scores of the young wizard head to head. And while web buzz on Harry …

The much anticipated X-Men Origins: Wolverine hits movie theatres this weekend, marking the fourth installment in the running series of X-Men movies. The theatrical debut coincides with the release of the video game based on the movie, just as was done in 2006 with the third movie X-Men: The Last Stand. While the box office comparison between the two movies is yet to be determined, if gamer anticipation is any indication, things are looking up for the franchise’s game based on Nielsen’s weekly Video Game Tracking survey.

The Kevin James comedy “Paul Blart: Mall Cop” secured the top spot of the weekend box office with a $39.2 million take. Last week’s box office champ, Clint Eastwood’s “Gran Torino” pulled into second with $25.6 milloin, edging out the third-place, 3D thriller “My Bloody Valentine” at $24.1 million. Following its Golden Globe wins, “Slumdog Millionaire” returned to the top 10, pulling in more than $7 million for the weekend.

RANK
Title
Studio
Weekend Gross
Jan 16-18
Total Gross
Thru Jan 18

1
PAUL BLART: MALL COP
SONY PICTURES
$39,234,238
$39,234,238

2
GRAN TORINO
WARNER BROS.
$25,606,399
$76,603,810

3
MY BLOODY VALENTINE
LIONSGATE
$24,103,962
$24,103,962

4
NOTORIOUS
FOX SEARCHLIGHT
$23,393,472
$23,393,472

5
HOTEL FOR …

In its first weekend of wide release, Clint Eastwood’s latest drama “Gran Torino” ruled the box office for the weekend of January 9-11, bringing in nearly $29.5M. Industrywide, the first weekend of the 2009 boxoffice year marked a 4% improvement over the same frame last year with $146 million in collective grosses, according to Nielsen EDI data. More at The Hollywood Reporter.

RANK
Title
Studio
Weekend Gross
Jan 9-11
Total Gross

1
GRAN TORINO
WARNER BROS.
$29,484,388
$40,524,518

2
BRIDE WARS
TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX
$21,058,173
$21,058,173

3
THE UNBORN
UNIVERSAL
$19,810,585
$19,810,585

4
MARLEY & ME
TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX
$11,391,425
$123,751,596

5
BENJAMIN BUTTON
PARAMOUNT
$9,212,515
$94,092,395

6
BEDTIME STORIES
WALT DISNEY STUDIOS
$8,802,120
$97,432,093

7
VALKYRIE
MGM STUDIOS
$6,617,065
$71,464,448

8
YES MAN
WARNER BROS.
$6,032,337
$89,288,024

9
NOT EASILY BROKEN
SONY PICTURES
$5,314,278
$5,314,278

10
SEVEN POUNDS
SONY …

Fox’s remake of the sci-fi classic “The Day The Earth Stood Still,” starring Keanu Reeves, landed atop the U.S. weekend Box Office with an estimated $31 million in opening grosses.
Warner Brothers’ comedy “Four Christmases” dropped to second place, with $13.3 million over the weekend and an $88 million cumulative take over three weeks of release.
Summit’s vampire romance “Twilight” finished third over the weekend, with an $8 million performance and a $150.1 million cumulative take over four weeks of release.
Industrywide, year-to-date totals for 2008 are outpacing the same portion of 2007 grosses by 1%, at $9.01 billion.
Below …

The Warner Bros.’ seasonal comedy “Four Christmases” topped the weekend Box Office for the second week in a row,  taking in an estimated $16.8 million in Friday-Sunday grosses.
Summit Entertainment’s vampire film “Twilight” took in an estimated $13 million to reclaim second place from Disney’s CG-animated feature “Bolt”, which earned an estimated $9.7 million to finish third.
Below are Box Office totals for the weekend of December 5-7, 2008, from Nielsen EDI.

RANK
FILM
STUDIO
WEEKEND
GROSS
(MILLIONS)

1
Four Christmases
WARNER BROS.
$16,755,478
$69.4

2
Twilight
SUMMIT ENTERTAINMENT
$13,046,722
$138.4

3
Bolt
WALT DISNEY STUDIOS
$9,796,149
$79.4

4
Australia
TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX
$7,050,261
$30.9

5
Quantum of Solace
SONY PICTURES
$6,752,390
$151.6

6
Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa
PARAMOUNT
$5,079,120
$165.7

7
Transporter 3
LIONSGATE
$4,668,898
$25.5

8
Punisher: War Zone
LIONSGATE
$4,271,451
$4.3

9
Cadillac Records
SONY PICTURES
$3,445,559
$3.4

10
Role Models
UNIVERSAL
$2,574,460
$61.6

Source: The Hollywood …

The Warner Bros.’ seasonal comedy “Four Christmases” took a huge helping of the weekend Box Office,  taking in an estimated $31.7 million in Friday-Sunday grosses, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The Vince Vaughn-Reese Witherspoon vehicle has taken in an approximately $46.7 million since arriving in theaters on Wednesday, one of three films positioned to make full use of a holiday-lengthened weekend.
Disney’s CG-animated feature “Bolt” had a saw a surprising 1% increase from its opening totals a week earlier, registering $26.6 million to rise from third to second place at the Box …

Summit Entertainment’s vampire film “Twilight” feasted on competitors this weekend, taking in an estimated $70.6 million to leave all competitors far behind, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
“Quantum of Solace,” the latest James Bond film from Sony and MGM, came in second over the weekend with $27.4 million, shaping a 10-day cumulative take of $109.5 million.
Across the industry, the overall weekend take of $169 million marked a 4% overall improvement over the same time frame last year, according to Nielsen EDI. That makes eight of the last nine weekends that overall industry takes have beaten year-over-year …

“Quantum of Solace” acheived the best opening weekend ever for a James Bond film in North America, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The film took in an estimated $70.4 million in domestic grosses over the weekend, which  exceeded even the most optimistic prerelease projections.
The family comedy “Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa,” from DreamWorks Animation and Paramount, registered $36.1 million to land in second place over the weekend.
Overall, the weekend’s $154 million in collective boxoffice across the industry marked a 48% improvement over the same weekend last year, according to Nielsen EDI.
Below are Box …

“Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa”, the new animated sequel distributed by Paramount, opened with an impressive $63.5 million take at the Box Office over the past weekend, according to The Hollywood Reporter.  The opening results significantly beat expectations, and even outperformed opening weekend for the original “Madagascar,” which earned $61 million in its opening over the 2005 Memorial Day weekend.
Universal’s new R-rated comedy “Role Models” finished second with a $19.3 million debut that also comfortably topped projections.
Overall, the weekend’s $148 million industrywide total represented a considerable 30% improvement over the same weekend last year, according to Nielsen EDI. 
Below are Box …