Friday Box Office: Game Plan To Edge Kingdom; Lee's Lust, Caution Huge!

A "Disney-fied" Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson has beaten Universal's big budget Middle East-set action-thriller The Kingdom for a weekend box office win.The Game Plan (Buena Vista) generated $5.7M on its opening day, and the family movie will likely score an estimated $19.38M after kids flood America's multiplexes on Saturday and Sunday. Meanwhile, the Peter Berg-directed The Kingdom won't get any "kiddie bounce," and it will finish with a softer $16.75M or so.

For Dwayne Johnson, this marks the 3rd-best opening of his post-wrestling movie career, just surpassing, ironically, The Rundown, which was directed by Peter Berg.

ALL-TIME TOP 5 DWAYNE "THE ROCK" JOHNSON OPENINGS

1. The Scorpion King – $36M

2. Be Cool – $23.4M

3. The Game Plan – $19.38M (estimate)

4. The Rundown – $18.5M

5. Walking Tall – $15.5M

The Kingdom continues Jamie Foxx's "spotty" box office track record. Only 2 of his movies, Collateral and Dreamgirls, have hit $100M domestic, and The Kingdom won't get anywhere close to that benchmark, although it will probably finish as the 5th-best opening of the Oscar winner's career.

ALL-TIME TOP 5 JAMIE FOXX OPENINGS

1. Jarhead – $27.7M opening

2. Miami Vice – $25.7M opening

3. Collateral – $24.7M opening

4. Ray – $20M opening

5. The Kingdom – $16.75M (estimate)

6. Ali – $14.7M opening

Resident Evil: Extinction (Sony) will finish the weekend 3rd. After a $2.5M 2nd Friday, the zombie sequel should manage $7.35M, a monstrous 69% drop from opening weekend. Good Luck Chuck (Lionsgate) will likely suffer a 56% drop from its opening 3-day. The Dane Cook-Jessica Alba "raunchfest" will probably climb just past $6M for the weekend. Rounding out the Top 5 will likely be the Lionsgate Western 3:10 to Yuma with an estimated $4.1M, lifting it past $40M domestic.

Ang Lee's Lust, Caution (Focus Features), a surprise winner at the Venice Film Festival, has opened with numbers in the stratosphere at its 1 New York engagement. The Chinese language film with an NC-17 rating scored nearly $19,000 on Friday, and it is targeting a $50,000+ opening weekend PTA at the Lincoln Plaza Cinemas on the Upper West Side. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, which did not expand from its 5 "official" opening weekend engagements,  delivered another $5,400 or so in PTA Friday, and it will finish #2 in PTA for the weekend with an estimated $18,000.

Into the Wild (Paramount Vantage), Sean Penn's terrifically-reviewed adventure film starring Emile Hirsch, has expanded strongly to 33 locations. Wild enjoyed a $4,400 PTA on Friday and that should translate to a nearly $16,000 3-day PTA.

For all of the numbers, visit FantasyMoguls.