Turns out breaking up ISN'T hard to do

"The Break-Up" did a nifty $38.9 million this weekend, higher than estimates and confounding industry poobahs who expected the new "X-Men" to rules for a second week. Never underestimate the power of an "Us Weekly" celebrity pair: the female audience (67% of "Break-Up"'s weekend box-office and about 99% of the preview screening I went to last Tuesday) just had to see what Jen and Vince look like as a couple. So what if it wasn't much? Gawking is gawking.

"X-Men: The Last Stand" sank like a rock, pulling in less than two-thirds of its opening week box-office. Guess everyone who cared saw it right out of the gate, which puts a nice big asterisk next to all those records the film broke. Variety (subscription required) points out that "The Break-Up" demolished the record for romantic comedies opening in the summer, but that's slicing the prosciutto pretty damned thin, isn't it. What's next? Will "Cars" have the best weekend grosses for an animated movie about automotive vehicles beginning with the letter "C"?

The more interesting news is that the Al Gore doc, "An Inconvenient Truth," is playing in only 77 theaters (versus 3,070 for "Break-Up" and 3,714 for "X-Men") and still attracted enough audiences to sneak it into the weekend top ten. The film's per-screen-average is a monstrous $17,400. Someone wants to see this movie, even if you don't. So maybe you should. Yeah, I'm noodging.

In an unusual gambit, "The Omen" opens tomorrow, on a Tuesday. Why? Because of the date: 06/06/06. Ooh, spooky stuff, as Count Floyd used to say on SCTV. It'll probably do its major business come Friday, but it should pull in enough tomorrow to break the record for Unnecessary Horror Remakes Opening on a Tuesday.

More box-office analysis here.