The three-day numbers…

Title (New Releases in Bold)                      Weekend                   Total

Tyler Perry’s Madea’s Family Reunion     $30,250,000             $30,250,000

Eight Below                                          $15,722,000            $45,055,000

The Pink Panther                                   $11,300,000            $61,046,000

Date Movie                                           $9,225,000              $33,912,000

Curious George                                      $7,005,000              $43,139,000

Firewall                                                $6,280,000              $36,893,000

Final Destination 3                                 $5,350,000              $44,799,000

Doogal                                                            $3,609,000                $3,609,000

Running Scared                                            $3,075,000                $3,075,000

Freedomland                                         $2,900,000              $10,788,000

When a Stranger Calls                            $2,700,000              $45,657,000

Big Momma’s House 2                             $2,400,000              $65,679,000

Already just $20 million off the domestic tally of Diary of a Mad Black Woman, the question now is whether Madea’s Family Reunion hold better than its predecessor, which did close to half of its total in its opening weekend and nose-dived after its second.  And why did Diary hold so poorly?  If it was as bad as the notoriously generous Roger Ebert claimed (and, judging from the bits and pieces I’ve caught on cable, I think he actually was being generous by assigning it one star), then maybe the marginally better-reviewed Family Reunion will stick around long enough to at least hit $80 million, which, all told, would be a dubious distinction if the $6 million production weren’t already in the black.  Still, once the church-chartered bus trips cease, is there any audience left?  And does that matter?  As long as the budgets stay below $10 million, probably not. 

Eight Below appears to be a word-of-mouth hit, holding exceptionally well in its post-President’s Day second weekend, and looking like an eventual $80 million grosser, which, when combined with its forthcoming DVD windfall, should please Disney and the film’s much-maligned star, Paul Walker, who can now afford to laugh off the New Line bomb Running Scared.  Debuting on 1,611 screens behind a tepid advertising push, a $3 million opening is still lousy, but apparently agreeable to the studio.  Perhaps it’s a cult film in the making.

The Weinstein Company once again conned their way into the top twelve with yet another cheaply produced CG-animated piece of trash, though Doogal obviously won’t come close to touching Hoodwinked’s $50 million-and-counting take. 

My favorite film of 2005, the Best Foreign Film-nominated Tsotsi, got off to a solid start in limited release, racking up a $13,000 per-screen culled from six locations in New York and Los Angeles.  How far the film will expand depends on its snagging that hardware next Sunday.