Weekend report

Much to my shock, a Spike Lee movie ran away with the weekend box office. Of course, "Inside Man" is Spike Lee playing at being commercial. Anyway, people didn't go see a Spike Lee movie, they went to see a Denzel Washington movie that featured a rare appearance by Jodie Foster, upping the ante on her current take-no-prisoners film persona.

Much to my shock, "V for Vendetta" came in a weak second and isn't turning into a viral must-see along the lines of even a second-rate "Matrix." Despite my extremely qualified admiration for the movie, I expected this movie to be a bigger deal than it apparently is. Maybe the fan-boys have downloaded it already.

Much to my shock, the crummy teen horror movie "Stay Alive" -- surely the first movie in living memory to school teen audiences in the legacy of Elizabeth Bathory -- scared up a pretty decent $11 million. Much to my shock, "Larry the Cable Guy: Health Inspector" only made $7 million. Which means audiences are either dumber or smarter than I give them credit for.

A full breakdown is at BoxOffice Mojo, and, as usual, the "per-screen average" is a fun column to keep an eye on. In that context, the most successful movie of the weekend was "Thank You for Smoking," which pulled in an average $19,629 in 54 theaters. The second-most successful? "Deep Sea 3D," with a $13,630 average in 46 theaters. For once, I'm not shocked.