‘Eagle Eye’ flies high at box office in No. 1 slot
LOS ANGELES, California (AP) — Shia LaBeouf’s conspiracy thriller Eagle Eye debuted at the top of the weekend box office with $29.2 million, according to studio estimates Sunday.
The Paramount-DreamWorks release was the second No. 1 premiere for LaBeouf and director D.J. Caruso, who also teamed on 2007’s hit Disturbia.
Opening in second place with $13.6 million was another reunion, the Warner Bros. romantic drama Nights in Rodanthe featuring The Cotton Club and Unfaithful co-stars Richard Gere and Diane Lane.
The previous weekend’s top flick, Sony’s thriller Lakeview Terrace, slipped to No. 3 with $7 million, raising its 10-day total to $25.7 million.
The Samuel Goldwyn release Fireproof, a Christian drama starring Kirk Cameron as a firefighter who turns to God to help save his marriage, premiered in fourth-place with $6.5 million.
Eagle Eye helped pull Hollywood out of the box-office doldrums that have lingered the last two months. The top 12 movies took in $87.8 million, up 15 percent from the same weekend last year.
You put a summer-style movie in the heart of the fall, and you can take advantage of the marketplace, said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Media By Numbers.
