All I can say is, “what the hell?” when a huge piece of crap like “Meet the Spartans” manages to take the top prize over the weekend. If you went to see that movie then I’m pointing my finger at you right now. Are you trying to encourage Hollywood to put out more worthless crap like that? “Spartans” earned just one positive critique at Rotten Tomatoes for a freshness rating of 5%. Meanwhile movies like “Juno” and “There Will Be Blood” struggle to find audiences’ attention. Hell, even “Rambo” looked ten times better than yet another installment of the “Epic Movie” club.

I’ve stepped back down from my soap box and am ready to proceed. An interesting drop off was with “Cloverfield” this weekend after winning last weekend with over $40 million. The monster movie pulled in just $12.7 million for 4th place. That’s a drop of nearly 70%. Last weekend I posed the challenge that Cloverfield would either rise on word of mouth or be crushed by its own weight of hype. Looks like the latter happened as it was even beat by “27 Dresses” which only dropped ~40%. Meanwhile “Juno” actually earned a 3% increase over its previous week. The other new release, “Untraceable”, appears to have been more unwatchable with a weak $11.2 million debut at #5. If you’re looking for the grammatically challenged “How She Move” then you won’t find it in the top 10. “Move” couldn’t manage to move any higher than #12.

Here they are, your box office movie earnings for this weekend: January 25 - 27, 2008. If you missed any of the background on the new releases check out our Weekend Movie Preview with trailers and details.

Box office domestic earnings for movies this weekend, January 25 - 27, 2008:

1. “Meet the Spartans” $18.7 million [$18.7M total]
2. “Rambo” $18.1 million [$18.1M total]
3. “27 Dresses” $13.6 million [$45.3M total]
4. “Cloverfield” $12.7 million [$64.2M total]
5. “Untraceable” $11.2 million [$11.2M total]
6. “Juno” $10.3 million [$100.1M total]
7. “The Bucket List” $10.2 million [$57.6M total]
8. “There Will Be Blood” $4.8 million [$14.7M total]
9. “National Treasure: Book of Secrets” $4.6 million [$205.4M total]
10. “Mad Money” $4.6 million [$15.2M total]
11. “Alvin and the Chipmunks” $4.5 million [$204.1M total]
12. “How She Move” $4.1 million [$4.1M total]