Below are the top 12 weekend estimates from the North American box office:

1. Race To Witch Mountain - $25,000,000
2. Watchmen - $18,070,000
3. The Last House On The Left - $14,658,000
4. Taken - $6,650,000
5. Tyler Perry's Madea Goes To Jail - $5,130,000
6. Slumdog Millionaire - $5,025,000
7. Paul Blart: Mall Cop - $3,100,000
8. He's Just Not That Into You - $2,905,000
9. Coraline - $2,665,000
10. Miss March - $2,350,000
11. Confessions Of A Shopaholic - $2,004,000
12. Fired Up - $1,650,000

Overall, the Box Office was down 12% on last weekend's total gross.

This weekend saw a new number one film in Disney's reboot RACE TO WITCH MOUNTAIN which earned a decent estimated $25M to lead the weekend. The Dwayne Johnson-starrer (aka The Rock) was not well received and may have trouble capitalising on its strong opening, but given Disney's low-cost ways this will likely be a decent win for the distributor. Personally it would be great if in the future we can see The Rock back in to action mode rather than kiddie mode.

The big story of the weekend was WATCHMEN, which fell a staggering 67% to earn an estimated $18M for the weekend. The first blockbuster of 2009 has officially fizzled out, unable to gain mainstream audience support. It is clear now that the film only really appealed to the fanboys. This film will be lucky to break even on its $150M budget domestically.

Although opening in second spot on Friday, THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT had to settle for third spot with an estimated $14.6M. This feels like the hundredth horror film that has already been released this year and expect it to perform in the same kind of way with steep drop-offs in the coming days and weeks.

Fox's sleeper hit, TAKEN, is still motoring on strongly, earning an estimated $6.6M and only dropping 9% on last weekend's gross. The Liam Neeson-starrer has earned a very healthy $126.8M domestically and $73M internationally to make it one of the big winners of 2009 compared to budget, especially considering that films of this genre never exhibit box office behaviour like this.

The only other new opener for this weekend is the number ten film MISS MARCH, a low-brow comedy which earned an estimated $2.3M. This film will hopefully disappear altogether in the next few days.

The US Box Office took in an estimated total of $89.1 million for the whole of the weekend 13-15 March 2009.