Los Angeles — The romantic comedies "Heartbreakers" and "The Brothers" topped the box office on Academy Award weekend.
"Heartbreakers," starring Sigourney Weaver and Jennifer Love Hewitt as a mother-daughter con team, opened at No. 1 with $12.3 million. "The Brothers" premiered in second place with $10.7 million, according to industry estimates Sunday.
"The marketplace can always use a good date film. These two movies offered a couple different ways to do that," said Paul Dergarabedian of Exhibitor Relations, which tracks box office figures. "The romantic comedy is a mainstay ... and these really show that that genre is alive and well."
The only other new film in wide release was "Say It Isn't So," starring Chris Klein and Heather Graham as lovers who mistakenly believe they are brother and sister. It opened to poor reviews and earned a meager $3.1 million for 10th place.
"The Brothers" stars Morris Chestnut, Bill Bellamy, D.L. Hughley and Shemar Moore (of television's "The Young and the Restless") as four successful men who must take stock of their lives when one becomes engaged.
The movie's excellent opening was due, in part, to soap opera fans who took dates to see it, and in part to a groundswell of support from the black community for a film that shows successful African-Americans dealing with real-life problems, said Valerie Van Gelder, executive vice president of marketing for Sony's Screen Gems, which distributed the film.
"There's an audience out there that's really, really hungry for this sort of thing," she said.
Overall, box office receipts were down for a third straight weekend. The top 12 movies grossed $70 million, slipping from $72.6 million in the previous weekend.
The take was down more than 4.4 percent from the same weekend last year, which was the second weekend for the hit "Erin Brockovich."
But overall, Dergarabedian said, the box office is up about 18 percent for the year. "I think we're gonna rebound in a big way when the summer films start hitting," he said. "This isn't anything to cry about."
The top 10 movies at North American theaters Friday through Sunday, according to Exhibitor Relations Co. Inc.:
1. "Heartbreakers," MGM, $12.3 million.
2. "The Brothers," Sony, $10.7 million.
3. "Exit Wounds," Warner Bros., $9.2 million.
4. "Enemy at the Gates," Paramount, $8.4 million.
5. "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," Sony, $4.7 million.
6. "The Mexican," DreamWorks, $4.3 million.
7. "Traffic," USA Films, $3.9 million.
8. "See Spot Run," Warner Bros., $3.34 million.
9. "Chocolat," Miramax, $3.3 million.
10. "Say It Isn't So," Fox, $3.1 million.
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