Following the martial arts film is the latest comedy from Team Apatow, a camp that seems to be rivaling Hollywood's penchant for Asian remakes, in terms of volume. It seems that every month we get a new one with Apatow's name listed under "Producer." The funny thing is that, at least for me, he has not really had a miss yet. Not all of them have been box office smashes, but they all have a consistent level of quality in writing and acting. This one is called Forgetting Sarah Marshall, and stars Jason Segel (who also wrote), Kristen Bell, Mila Kunis, and Russell Brand, along with a few other Apatow regulars. It would seem to be a one note film, but it proves to be much more. It is laugh out loud funny, touching, daring, and just truly works. Hopefully, the R rated comedy will find an audience and leg out a good theatrical run.
Two other new releases made it to the top ten this week. First up is the fourth place film, 88 Minutes. Here is a movie that should have been good, however it fails to come anywhere near that level. Still, this Al Pacino thriller does provide some goofy entertainment, although it could just as easily induce a migraine. The other film just squeaked in at number ten, Ben Stein's Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, a documentary that seems to be ruffling some feathers. I am interested in seeing it, but have not yet had the opportunity.
Among the returning films, Street Kings fared the worst, slipping to seventh place as its gross fell over 66% from its debut mark last week. Also suffering a big dip, and more deserving of it, is Prom Night, which fell 58%. If only it fell more. On the other hand, Nim's Island displayed some good legs as it fell less than 38%.
Next week will see new competition from Tina Fey's new comedy Baby Mama, Deception featuring the pairing of Hugh Jackman and Ewan McGregor, and the stoner sequel Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay. Two of these should have strong weekends, with Deception being a bit more questionable, at least in my eyes.
Four movies dropped off the top ten this week: Smart People (12), Superhero Movie (11), The Ruins (13), and Drillbit Taylor (14).
| This Week | Last Week | Title | Wknd Gross | Overall | Week in release |
| 1 | N | The Forbidden Kingdom | $21,401,121 | $21,401,121 | 1 |
| 2 | N | Forgetting Sarah Marshall | $17,725,330 | $17,725,330 | 1 |
| 3 | 1 | Prom Night | $8,670,364 | $32,133,926 | 2 |
| 4 | N | 88 Minutes | $6,957,216 | $6,957,216 | 1 |
| 5 | 4 | Nim's Island | $5,687,072 | $32,894,115 | 3 |
| 6 | 3 | 21 | $5,520,362 | $70,004,505 | 4 |
| 7 | 2 | Street Kings | $4,179,505 | $20,058,143 | 2 |
| 8 | 6 | Horton Hears a Who! | $3,511,834 | $144,418,495 | 6 |
| 9 | 5 | Leatherheads | $3,049,465 | $26,605,235 | 3 |
| 10 | N | Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed | $2,970,848 | $2,970,848 | 1 |
Box Office Predictions Recap
It was an up and down weekend for my predictions. While I was only able to get a couple of the placement predictions correct, my gross predictions were generally closer. The most interesting, at least to me, part of my predictions versus the actuals is the fact that I had the number one and two movies flipped, gross included. 88 Minutes and Street Kings were my biggest problems, besides placement being off, the grosses were the furthest away from their actuals.
Here is how the field matched up:
| Actual | Prediction | Title | Wknd Gross | Prediction |
| 2 | 1 | Forgetting Sarah Marshall | $17,725,330 | $21 million |
| 1 | 2 | The Forbidden Kingdom | $21,401,121 | $18 million |
| 4 | 3 | 88 Minutes | $6,957,216 | $11 million |
| 3 | 4 | Prom Night | $8,670,364 | $9 million |
| 7 | 5 | Street Kings | $4,179,505 | $7.5 million |
| 6 | 6 | 21 | $5,520,362 | $6.5 million |
| 5 | 7 | Nim's Island | $5,687,072 | $5.5 million |
| 8 | 8 | Horton Hears a Who! | $3,511,834 | $3.5 million |
| 9 | 9 | Leatherheads | $3,049,465 | $3 million |
| 12 | 10 | Smart People | $1,600,687 | $2 million |
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