Angels & Demons Soars

Angels & Demons took the top spot at the box office this weekend with an estimated $48 million. The prequel to The Da Vinci Code, which finds Tom Hanks reprising his role as symbolist Robert Langdon, is poised to match the success of its predecessor, already taking in an estimated $104 million overseas.

Not too far behind, Star Trek slipped to second place with $43 million, losing 42 percent of its audience. Coming in at a distant third, X-Men Origins: Wolverine made $14.8 million. The movie’s three-week $151 million gross finally matched its $150 million budget. Ghosts of Girlfriends Past came in fourth place with $6.8 million, and in fifth place was Obsessed with a measly $4.5 million.

Though in limited release, Management, the latest movie from Jennifer Aniston, opened small with a $1,783 per-theater average for a weekend total of $378,000. The Brothers Bloom, with Rachel Weisz and Adrien Brody, fared better, averaging $20,500 per four screens, for an $82,000 total. And Summer Hours, a French film with Juliette Binoche, only opened in two theaters but had the best per-screen average of the weekend, with $24,100, for a total of $48,200.

Next week Christian Bale is sure to terminate the competition with the highly anticipated Terminator Salvation from director McG, Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian, with Ben Stiller and Amy Adams, hopes to follow in the footsteps of its successful previous film and Dance Flick, the latest spoof comedy from the Wayans brothers, will fight (or more appropriately, dance) for a top stop.

Opening in limited release is Easy Virtue, with Jessica Biel and Ben Barnes, and Steven Soderbergh’s much buzzed-about The Gilrfriend Experience, which takes a look at high-end escorting, opens in New York and Los Angeles.