It was a disappointing weekend for the Farrelly brothers and fans of bodily functions as comedy prop. The Heartbreak Kid failed to make the number one spot, being knocked into number two by last week's number one The Game Plan.
The Ben Stiller comedy racked up a disappointing $14million on 4,200 screens. That's actually higher than Ben Stiller's last outing with the Farrelly's, There's Something About Mary, which took $13.7million. But that was nine years ago and would be the equivalent of around $20million today and that was in the days before Ben Stiller was a big name.
The Rock starring The Game Plan, on the other hand, dropped by just 29% in its second week, taking $16.3million to bring its total to $42.8million in ten days.
Heartbreak Kid could at least claim to be much more successful than The Seeker: Dark is Rising which was dead on arrival with just $3.7million. The latest in a glut of tween fantasy series struggled despite a high screen count of 3,141. But there was worse to come in a weekend that saw box office takings down $26million on the same time last year.
Feel The Noise, a story of a Bronx boy who wants to make it as a rapper, got no love with $3.4million and the entire country failed to notice that The Jane Austen Book Club had gone on wide relase, ignoring it to the tune of $1.5million.
There was a bit of good news on the new release front, though. Michael Clayton, George Clooney's Oscar hopeful, and Blade Runner: The Final Cut took $704,000 and $95,000 on very limited releases (15 screens and 2 screens).