1. Bee Movie - $26 million
Jerry Seinfeld has performed so many acts of promotional heroism (such as staring into the cold, dead eyes of the world's worst-prepared interviewer and emerging with his sanity intact) in trying to raise the public's awareness of Bee Movie that we'd almost forgotten the daring stunt that kicked off his journey: that death-defying high-wire act at Cannes that easily could have ended in tragedy for either the comedian or his studio stunt-mogul had their ziplines snapped or harnesses failed, sending them to a grisly—but well-publicized—demise in front of thousands of international movie fans on that resort-town beach. After the jump, relive the historic Flight Of The World's Richest Bumblebee:

2. American Gangster - $24.319 million
While former Harlem drug kingpin Nicky Barnes thought Cuba Gooding Jr. did the best he could with an underwritten part, he still had enough issues with his portrayal as a too-minor character in American Gangster that he decided to phone in some complaints from an undisclosed location in the witness protection program. Barnes did, however, refrain from griping that superproducer Brian Grazer couldn't convince Universal to put up the money to get Don Cheadle for the supporting role, greatly increasing the chances of an Oscar nomination.

3. Fred Claus - $19.225 million
What happened? Reimagining a four-year old Christmastime blockbuster with a watered-down, family friendly Vince Vaughn seemed like such a no-brainer for the holiday season. Perhaps there are only so many "normal-sized person having difficulty sleeping in a tiny elf-bed" jokes the moviegoing public will pay to see.

4. Lions For Lambs - $6.71 million
We're willing to hold off asking the uncomfortable question of whether or not Tom Cruise still qualifies as a movie star until the release of Valkyrie, as the extent of the audience's willingness to embrace the actor while borrowing Hitler's haircut seems like it will provide a more accurate indication of his box office viability than watching him play smarmy in a talky political drama.

8. P2 - $2.20 million
Virtually all of the garage-bound horror flick's box office take came from within the Los Angeles city limits, where audiences were eager to relive the blood-chilling fear they'll die in the cars that they experience each time they're stranded inside The Grove's Parking Structure of the Damned following an ill-considered weekend-night trip to the multiplex.

• Weekend Box Office November 8-4, 2007 [Box Office Mojo]

1. American Gangster - $46.344 million
The already-incredible story of how superproducer Brian Grazer singlehandedly brought long-troubled passion project American Gangster to the big screen (background here—make sure you have some tissues handy before following the link, for the part about how he nursed a sickly script draft back to health by feeding it formula through a medicine dropper is guaranteed to elicit tears) has become even more uplifting now that it's debuted as the number one movie in the country.

Grazer's latest tale of triumph should serve as an inspiration to everyone chasing their Hollywood dreams, proving once again that all one needs to succeed in this town is a relentlessly positive, never-say-die attitude, an A-list director, two Oscar-winning stars, and a studio willing to put up $100 million.

2. Bee Movie - $39.1 million
While Jerry Seinfeld's tireless promotion of Bee Movie was instrumental in helping the film to a big opening weekend, we think it's important that the contributions of other prominent members of the comedy community not be overlooked. Though technically unaffiliated with the project, Andy Dick's recent appearance on Jimmy Kimmel probably helped sell a few tickets to some moviegoers confused into believing they might get a look at some 12-inch stingers.

3. Saw IV - $11.010 million
Without the excuse of Halloween weekend to embolden them, straggling Saw fans probably felt too self-conscious about showing up to the multiplex in their disturbingly detailed, eviscerated Jigsaw victims costumes to turn out in larger numbers.

4. Dan in Real Life - $8.125 million
5. 30 Days of Night - $4 million

7. Martian Child - $3.650 million
Very quietly, the "sad widower struggling with the realities of single fatherhood" phase of John Cusack's career has begun.

• Weekend Box Office November 2-4, 2007 [Box Office Mojo]

The loss cut deep.

"Everybody thinks they're making a movie and are ready to start, then suddenly they're all going home and packing up all the stuff," Grazer recalled. "We had hired every department head. The extras were cast and fitted for wardrobe. We had floors in a building with thousands of changes of clothes for the actors. We had locked locations and had all the props to make it viable to shoot."

Fuqua was devastated: "It goes without saying that the experience was painful."

Grazer was embarrassed when he heard from Washington's agent that the movie had been canceled, his first and only film ever to be shut down.

"It was such a failure. I don't like costing people money," he said. Over the last two decades, Grazer has produced 58 movies — 40 of them for Universal — with his production partner, director Ron Howard, including the Oscar-winning hit "A Beautiful Mind."

After a week of feeling defeated, Grazer decided to call Washington. "I said, 'Look, this is really uncomfortable, but if I can figure out a way of reapproaching this will you stay involved?" he said he asked. Washington told him yes.

The rest, as they say, is history: Grazer eventually found a new director in Ridley Scott, convinced Universal to fork over the $100 million it would take to fully realize his vision, and used his mystical soul-hearing powers to mesmerize longtime collaborator Russell Crowe into joining the project, finally making the years of suffering he endured in the pursuit of his greatest superproducing challenge to date pay off. And once Grazer completes his four-hour retelling of his Gangster odyssey at the movie's gala premiere, the standing ovation will be defeaning.

• 'Gangster' gets a shot [LAT]