1. Prom Night — $22.7 million
We could sit here and spit with resentment over the windfall greeting this PG-13 slasher knock-off, but what's the point? OK, OK — besides protesting against the continued ruination of more than 2 million teenagers who've never seen a good mainstream horror movie. And besides lamenting the certain incentive for Prom Night 2. And besides... all right, fine, we're spitting with resentment.

2. Street Kings — $12 million
Fox Searchlight took a gamble opening wide with this Keanu Reeves/Forest Whitaker cop thriller, which found scorn among critics and audiences alike. Consider this the last time the Searchlight gang ignores the sage advice of distribution wunderkind Scarlett Johansson.

3. 21 — $11 million
The surprise hit sustained in the top three in its third week of release, bringing its gross to more than $62 million and guaranteeing a slew of teen-oriented gambling films that will alternate opening weekends with its Sony/Screen Gems' Prom Night franchise.

4. Nim's Island — $9 million
We have yet to meet anybody who has actually seen this movie, thus convincing us it's really just a vast Walden Media conspiracy to make George Clooney feel bad about...

5. Leatherheads — $6.2 million
For the second straight week, Clooney establishes himself as the A-list actor/director who can't outperform Jim Sturgess (21) or Abigail Breslin (Nim's Island). Only the Nipple Suit represents a greater indignity — for now.

WHAT'S NEW: Slim pickings, to be sure. The latest entry in the stultifying End-of-Ideas canon, the PG-13 slasher remake Prom Night is set to take the sluggish weekend with what most observers are predicting as a $14 million weekend in wide release. The only other release set to crack the top five is the Keanu Reeves cop-bomb Street Kings, which is tanking at Rotten Tomatoes as we speak and should top out between $10-$11 million. Also opening: the Ellen Page/Thomas Haden Church/Dennis Quaid comedy Smart People; the octogenarian-punk-choir doc Young@Heart; and an English-language version of France's Oscar-nominated animated film Persepolis, with voice contributions from Catherine Deneuve and Sean Penn.

THE BIG LOSER: Surprise hit 21 will no doubt slow down in its third week, but few recent releases will hit a wall as violently as George Clooney's Leatherheads. Poor word-of-mouth from reviews and a third-place finish on opening weekend will yield a poisonous turnout of no more than $6 million, mostly from Renee Zellweger obsessives eager for a second look after enjoying her hijinks at the London premiere.

THE UNDERDOG: After recent, high-profile berths at the Toronto and Sundance Film Festivals, the tiny ensemble drama The Visitor finally arrives in theaters. Directed by Tom McCarthy (The Station Agent), the film features Six Feet Under veteran Richard Jenkins as an emotionally withdrawn college professor who finds a Middle Eastern stranger crashing in his New York apartment. The "visitor," an illegal immigrant, teaches our mild-mannered hero the meaning of life through hand-drum lessons until he's arrested and deported. Thankfully the professor is a decent enough human and drummer by that point that he manages to score with the man's visiting mother. But, you know, in a good way. Just trust us, we liked it.

FOR SHUT-INS: New DVD's include There Will Be Blood, Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, Lions For Lambs, Sweeney Todd and, in a long-awaited coup that's kept us tethered to our living rooms since Tuesday, the first season of Matlock.

Are you excited yet? Aside from wagering with us on Leatherheads' box-office plunge, what are your own plans for a slow-ish movie weekend?

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First, my friends and I are going to get ready at our hotel. Did I tell you that we got a hotel for the night? Yeah, we got a hotel in the city for the night. What's the point of going back to New Haven after all the fun we're going to have? So, we're going to have a make up artist and a hair stylist get us all glammed up and then, after that, my boyfriend and his friends are coming into the city. I guess that our parents are going to come and take like a bajillion photos of us. It's always good to have a lot of pictures though. Then after that, we're going to have dinner at the Waverly Inn. Maybe we'll get to see Chace Crawford & JC together or maybe even an Olsen twin!?! Do you watch Gossip Girl? I love that show. I hope we see somebody from that show when we're in the city. After dinner, we're gonna go to the prom and I know that probably my boyfriend and his friends are going to be a little drunk and I might be, too, but it doesn't matter, we're still going to have a good time. I hope that the DJ plays that OneRepublic song and then who knows what's going to happen after that? We are staying in the city after all.

[Photo Credit: INF]