Despite a 60% drop in business and anticipated fierce competition, Madea Goes to Jail retained its position as top ticket seller with an estimated $16.4 million gross. The presumed champ – Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience – got off to a fast start but quickly faltered and finished second overall with a $12.6 million tally.

Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li, the frame’s other wide release, slotted eighth with a tepid $4.5 million while the thriller Echelon Conspiracy generated a tame $500,000 from 400 theaters.

Debuting niche and limited releases were also generally listless though the nine screen launch of the immigration drama Crossing Over had a promising $8,820 screen average. Otherwise results were fair to poor including family targeted The Velveteen Rabbit with box office of $78,000 at 101 venues and Finn on the Fly grossing $24,600 at 38 Canadian venues. Le Bonheur de Pierre had a disappointing $92,800 box office in 40 Quebec sites but there was a strong single screen gross of $11,500 for the documentary Examined Life.

Oscar winners Slumdog Millionaire and Milk added playdates and had sizeable box office boosts and overall revenues again shot up by double digits from 2008.

Leading up to the bow of the Jonas Brothers concert film expectations within the industry were in the range of $25 million to $30 million, or slightly less than the similarly targeted Miley Cyrus/Hannah Montana concert film that created industry buzz when it was initially released as a one-week locked multiplex event two years ago. Reports from ticket vendors MovieTickets.com announced 700 sold out first day screenings and Fandango had a press release that noted the film was selling more than 50% of all advance sales.

The film indeed was the top seller Friday but its $4.9 million gross immediately lowered the bar to less than $20 million and when Saturday box office dropped by 6%, projections dipped down below $15 million. But before one reads the epitaph on the singing trio or the 3D concert movie, one has to keep in mind that the film finished with close to a per engagement average of a not too shabby $10,000. What truly requires more scrutiny are tracking studies and how one translates advance ticket sales into box office. Jonas Brothers was hyped toward fans seeing it opening weekend and that ramped up anticipation had the die hards buying for opening day.

Following its Oscar glory, Slumdog Millionaire saw its domestic box office pass $100 million and theater owners adding almost 700 engagements. Grosses popped 44% this weekend and the film had its best ever weekend gross. Similarly Milk virtually doubled its screen count and box office improve 24% and The Reader’s best actress Oscar kept that picture’s gross on par but others saw no appreciable change and apart from the best picture winner its likely the other contenders will experience only a temporary box office surge.

Weekend revenues rang up about $105 million to ease up about 26% from last weekend but bumped up 12% from 2008. Last year Semi-Pro led ticket sales with a $15.1 million opening salvo and Oscar winners were nowhere near the top of the charts.

The current movie year continues to buck general consumer buying trends to the positive with more than a handful of films drawing in audience way beyond expectations. And the frosting is that most, including Paul Blart, Taken, Gran Torino and Slumdog Millionaire were, relatively speaking, modestly budget with below-average talent profit participation. Maybe tough economic times will be at least a temporary salvation for the movie going experience with or without a 3D flourish.

– Leonard Klady

Domestic Market Share – January 1 – February 26, 2009

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