'21' Kicked Off 'Horton' From Box Office Throne

The blackjack drama "21" has hit the jackpot at the three-days weekend North American box office, which ended Sunday, March 30, as the Columbia Pictures nailed the top spot and unseated the reigning champion "Horton Hears a Who!" from its #1 seat. According to an estimation made by Box Office Mojo, the Jim Sturgess and Kate Bosworth starring film has exceeded the studio expectation and opened big by grossing $24.1 million.

Said to be inspired by a true story, the film that tells about six MIT students who conspire to count cards at the blackjack tables to win millions in Las Vegas has reportedly appealed to the younger moviegoers as Box Office Mojo reported that 53% of the audience was under 25 years old. Further, the film also marked Bosworth and co-star Kevin Spacey's biggest theatrical opening since "Superman Returns" which debuted with $52.5 million.

Further, though pushed to the runner-up position after two weeks on top, "Horton" still managed to almost double the earning of the number third film. Experiencing a small decrease in sales, the 20th Century Fox collected $17.7 million in its third week and became the first film in 2008 that managed to reach over $100 million sales with the cume of $117.6 million.

Debuting on the third place, the Dimension Films' spoof "Superhero Movie" didn't manage to live up to the expectation as the Craig Mazin's film scored a disappointing $9.5 million. The film featuring young theps Drake Bell and Sara Paxton was far behind in sales from another spoof film "Meet the Spartans" which opened with $18.5 million. Following in the fourth position was Tyler Perry's "Meet the Browns" with $7.5 million.

The next two spots saw a tight competition from "Drillbit Taylor" and "Shutter". The two films with different genre brought in each $5.7 million and $5.2 million in respective order. Next, the seventh position went to Roland Emmerich's epic "10,000 B.C.". With the addition of $4.9 million, the Steven Strait and Camilla Belle-starrer film has garnered in total nearly $85 million.

The eighth slot was filled by another newcomer, the Paramount Pictures' war drama "Stop-Loss". The Ryan Phillippe's film has pulled in $4.6 million in its opening weekend and besting over the Martin Lawrence's film "College Road Trip" which fell to the ninth place with $3.5 million. Additionally, rounding up the top ten was the heist thriller "The Bank Job" with $2.8 million.