Weekend box office: Who let the dog out?

(The original Nick and Nora meet the Beverly Hills Wire-Haired Fox Terrier)

As most surmised, the Chihuahua movie took the box office crown over the weekend, with $29 million. That's a big bag of kibble if not a heavyweight smash, so buckle in for the invariable sequels and knock-offs: "Boca Raton Bouvier," "Las Vegas Labradoodle," "Pittsburgh Pitbull," etc. "Beverly Hills Chihuahua" averaged an impressive 9 grand per theater, proof that a cute gimmick and a relentless marketing campaign can bring in the audiences. Me, I stayed at home and walked my own dog.

"Eagle Eye" sloped off by a mild 40 percent and is holding its own with $18 million its second weekend out. "Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist" came in at #3 with $12 million; with any luck, word of mouth will keep this charmer afloat for a while before it goes off to DVD. "Appaloosa" went from 14 theaters to 1,045 and barely held on, with $5 million and a mushy $1,045 per-theater-average. It deserves better, if only because Viggo Mortensen and Jeremy Irons are so much fun to watch and Renee Zellweger is just entertainingly weird.

Clustered down around the bottom of the top 10 are a number of other new openings: right-wing comedy "An American Carol" with $3.8 million (not bad considering its stealth PR campaign), Bill Maher atheism doc "Religulous" with $3.5 million (and a very healthy $7,000 per-theater-average), Greg Kinnear inventor drama "Flash of Genius" with $2.3 million, and allegorical bumout drama "Blindness" with $2 million, acceptable for an art-house offering that somehow made it to 1,000 theaters.

British nasty-com "How to Lose Friends and Alienate People" did just that with $1.4 million and an appalling $800 PTA. By contrast, "Rachel Getting Married," the Ann Hathaway-anchored comedy-drama that stands as director Jonathan Demme's return to form, played in nine theaters and averaged a huge $33,667. It'll go wider this weekend on the strength of good reviews.

Box Office Mojo has the full skinny as does Leonard Klady at Movie City News.