The Box Office of Perry

Tyler Perry's Madea Goes to Jail hits your neighborhood Bijou and consumes most of the box office oxygen with a $14,850,000 Friday opening ....

Meantime, Coraline rides along in the fourth position, with a Friday take of $2,750,000, the second highest per-screen average for any talkie in the Top Ten.

(While we're on the subject of animation, today is the 59th anniversary of the release of Cinderella, the cartoon feature that put Disney back into the long-form game after a lapse of eight years.)

Add On: The weekend cume is in, and Mr. Perry can now officially open his own Fort Knox:

... This latest (and, in terms of racial stereotyping, perhaps the worst) from Tyler Perry was the largest opening weekend gross on the fewest amount of screens ever (2,032) and the highest grossing weekend opening in Lionsgate history ...

And the winners, front to back:

1. Tyler Perry's Madea Goes To Jail (Lionsgate) OPENER $41.1M Wkd [2,032 Theaters]

2. Taken (20th Century Fox) $11.4M Wkd [3,102], Cume $95.1M

3. Coraline 3-D (Focus Features) $11M Wkd [2,155], Cume $53.3M

4. He's Just Not That Into You (NL/Warner Bros) $8.5M Wkd [3,050], Cume $70M

5. Slumdog Millionaire (Fox Searchlight) $8M Wkd [2,244], Cume $98M

6. Friday The 13th (NL/Warner Bros) $7.8M (-81%) Wkd [3,105], Cume $55M

7. Confessions Of A Shopaholic (Disney) $7M Wkd (-53%) [2,507], Cume $27.6M

8. Paul Blart: Mall Cop (Columbia/Sony) $7M Wkd [2,835], Cume $121.3M

9. Fired Up (Screen Gems/Sony) OPENER $6M Wkd [1,810]

10. The International (Sony) $4.4M (-52%) Wkd [2,364], Cume $17M

You will kindly note how Coraline, outside of the Oscar-bound Slumdog Millionaire, had the smallest percentage drop of any Top Ten feature as it moved from #5 to #3. Quite clearly, the little girl has legs.