Sony

Anne Hathaway didn't hide from personal troubles. Her new film didn't hide from audiences.

Hathaway's Rachel Getting Married stood out in a limited-release debut, grossing $275,000 at only nine theaters, Exhibitor Relations estimates said today. No weekend film made more money per screen—a whopping $30,556—than the indie-minded family drama.

Overall, Beverly Hills Chihuahua ($29 million) topped the box office, while Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist ($12 million) scored with young women.

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Ralph Nelson SMPSP/DreamWorks

Shia LaBeouf held. Kirk Cameron soared.

LaBeouf scored his fourth straight No. 1 movie with a $29.2 million debut from Eagle Eye, per studio estimates compiled today by Exhibitor Relations.

Cameron's Fireproof, a Christian-themed movie that motivated its Christian base to gobble up advance tickets, bowed in fourth with a strong $6.5 million.

The Dark Knight, meanwhile, finished out of the top 10 for the first time in more than two months. Hollywood's No. 2 movie of all time still managed to take in another $1.7 million, per Box Office Mojo, and push its overall haul to $524.5 million.

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Samuel Goldwyn Films

Shia LaBeouf has starred in three straight No. 1 movies. Kirk Cameron hasn't seen his face on a multiplex screen in seven years. Guess who's the hottest ticket heading into the weekend?

Sure about that?

In terms of advance sales, Cameron's Fireproof, an ultra-low-budget marriage-minded family drama opening on about 800 screens, has smoked LaBeouf's $105 million, opening-everywhere thriller Eagle Eye.

Surprisingly perhaps, box-office experts are not surprised...

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Chuck Zlotnick / Sony Pictures

Well, at least Hollywood's having a better fall than Wall Street.

Other than that saving grace, it was another blah weekend at the box office. No film topped $20 million. Only two films topped $10 million, down from four last weekend.

Lakeview Terrace led the way, per studio estimates compiled today by Exhibitor Relations. And for what it was, the bad-cop, worse-neighbor thriller starring Samuel L. Jackson did well—a $20 million movie that debuted with $15.6 million.

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Macall Polay/Focus Features

There was nothing wrong with the box office that a little Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Tyler Perry, Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Meg Ryan and Annette Bening couldn't fix.

A squadron of star-powered movies helped Hollywood recover from one of its worst weekends in years. And while no one film was all that big, together, they were big enough.

Joel and Ethan Coen's Burn After Reading, featuring Pitt and Clooney, finished first with $19.4 million, per studio estimates compiled today by Exhibitor Relations.

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Chan Kam Chuen/Lionsgate

The fall box office sure fell all right.

After a $4 billion grossing summer, Hollywood slogged through its worst weekend of the year, per studio estimates compiled today by Exhibitor Relations.

The weekend was distinguished, if not defined, by Bangkok Dangerous, the new Nicolas Cage action movie, which finished first with the lowest gross for a No. 1 movie in five years ($7.8 million).

If estimates hold, the $45 million Bangkok Dangerous will barely have had enough firepower to outgross the debuts of 2008 bombs such as Mad Money ($7.7 million) and Space Chimps ($7.2 million).

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Universal/Paramount

If all goes well for Hollywood, Shia LaBeouf and Zac Efron will be the new Reese Witherspoon.

The fall movie season begins today. Running through Halloween weekend, the next two months will boast plenty of stars, a good number of Oscar contenders, including Oliver Stone's W., but possibly few, if any, box-office blockbusters.

It's been six years, in fact, since any film released in September grossed more than $100 million, Exhibitor Relations reported this week. The last movie to do so was the Witherspoon comedy Sweet Home Alabama.

"If any film [this] September has a chance to break $100 million," says Exhibitor Relations' Jeff Bock, "it's Eagle Eye and Shia LaBeouf."

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Warner Bros. Pictures

The second-biggest movie in Hollywood history. Sky-high ticket prices. Put them together, and what do you get? Surprisingly, not a record.

From the first weekend in May through Labor Day, the Dark Knight-led summer movie season raked in $4.13 billion, Exhibitor Relations said today, down a tick from last year's all-time figure of $4.16 billion.

The problem, if that's the word, since 2008 goes down as the second-biggest summer on record, was twofold: dwindling attendance; and, lack of a late-summer blockbuster.

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Stephen Vaughan/Warner Bros. Entertainment

The last $100 million is the hardest.

The Dark Knight yesterday became only the second movie in Hollywood history to gross $500 million or more. It now stands within $100 million of toppling Titanic as the biggest-ever film at the domestic box office.

Elsewhere, Tropic Thunder made it three wins in a row at the weekend box office, with a $14.3 million four-day, holiday take, per studio estimates today from Exhibitor Relations.

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