This weekend's box office: mothers and stoners

While Steve Hulett takes a well-earned mini-vacation (he'll be back on Thursday), I bring you the weekend's box office news.

With somewhat-better-than-expected reviews, speculation that Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay might jump to the head of the class proved unfounded, as Baby Mama came out in first place grossing $18.2 million from 2.543 screens.

It's no secret why Baby Mama topped the weekend: according to Variety, 68% of the audience was female. It remains to be seen if Carina Chocano's fears of a Tina Fey backlash in her Los Angeles Times review come to bear.

H&K's $14.5 mil from 2,510 screens (despite an R rating) is more than just seeds and stems for the sequel to a film that tanked in theaters but was discovered on DVD.

(As I write this, Variety's international webpage is down for maintenance, so we'll wait till tomorrow to talk about the foreign numbers.)