Never have I been as happy to see a half-hearted attempt at a video game cinematic adaptation debut as I was when I saw that Max Payne had knocked Beverly Hills Chihuahua off the top spot.

Starring Mark Wahlberg, Max Payne opened this weekend in the U.S. at number 1 with a respectable — given the time of year it is — $18 million. Based on the video game of the same name, the movie took a different, more ethereal approach to a game that was, for all intents and purposes, a fantastic shoot-em-up.

Sadly, Beverly Hills Chihuahua took second spot, showing once again that no matter how bad a movie is there will still be people who want to see it. Over and over and over and”¦ It managed to pull in $11.2 million this weekend, only just ahead of The Secret Life of Bees, which took third spot and $11 million. I’m not sure what it’s about, but it has Dakota Fanning in it, along with Queen Latifah and Paul Bettany, so I might go see it anyway.

Whether it’s the fact that the movie-gods have an unhealthy obsession with chihuahua’s or moviegoers have just gotten sick of seeing good movies, Beverly Hills Chihuahua has once again taken top spot at the box office this weekend.

Starring the voice talents of such luminaries as Andy Garcia, Cheech Marin, Edward James Olmos , and Jamie Lee Curtis, not to mention Drew Barrymore, the movie once again nabbed number one with a total take of $17.5 million.

Spots two and three went to two newcomers, thankfully. Quarantine managed itself $14.2 million and Body of Lies an equally respectful $13.1 million.

For the love of all that is holy, thank GOODNESS, it finally happened, a movie that I am vaguely interested in (now that I think about it) finally took number one away from the tripe that has been rolled out recently, and managed to do so with a modest intake as well.

With a weekend gross of just under $30 million, Eagle Eye, starring Shia LaBeouf and Michelle Monaghan , took the number one spot. It’s the first time in seven weeks that a movie has made this much, since the third week of The Dark Knight.

Coming in at number two was another new release, Nights in Rodanthe, starring Richard Gere and Diane Lane. I know nothing about this movie, except that Gere is in it, which probably makes it a romance. However, though it might have scored number two, it did so with only $13.5 million.

In a weekend that can only be described as “lackluster,” this week’s box office winner only walks away with the prize because, I feel, no one else really bothered to turn up to the party. Lakeview Terrace came away with the prize this week, which really just explains how bad this week must have been. A movie portraying Samuel L. Jackson as an overbearing cop hassling a pair of newlyweds (that’s all I know of the movie, by the way) should not have beaten out the animated feature Igor, but I’ll get to that in a minute.

With a whopping $15.6 million, Lakeview Terrace came out on top by a pretty clear margin too, considering the next closest entry was last week’s number one, Burn After Reading, which managed only $11.3 million this week. These were the only two movies to rake in over $10 million this weekend.

Number three goes to the Dane Cook/Kate Hudson comedy My Best Friend’s Girl, which managed only $8.3 million. Sadly, it looks as if the box office take seems to match up with its reviews, taking a real hit at RT with 3 out of 10 and 4.8 out of 10 at IMDB.

After weeks of lackluster box office performances, and new movies struggling to make it even into the top 5, the box office reports from this past weekend show a much happier tale. All four of the movies that opened this weekend (in more than a thousand cinemas) appeared in the top four and all earned over $10 million. A much better weekend for the box office, considering last week’s top earner managed only $7.7 million.

Taking the top spot was Burn After Reading, starring George Clooney, Frances McDormand, Brad Pitt, and John Malkovich coming in with $19.4 million. Tyler Perry’s The Family That Preys took second spot close behind Burn, with $18 million.

Third spot went to the movie I was anticipating for this weekend, the crime thriller starring Robert De Niro and Al Pacino, Righteous Kill, coming in with $16.5 million.