Heistant as we are to suggest such a pop-psychology explanation, we can only submit that Katrina weariness on the part of America's movegoers this weekend is responsible for its little spurt at the box office. "The Transporter 2" was this weekend's top movie, which was one of our Friday possibilities, and together, the top 5 movies' opening take accounted for about $64 million. (The weekend before, when "Brothers Grimm" couldn't even beat "The 40 Year-Old Virgin," which had already been out a week, the top 5 movies taken together made about $10 million less). Studio heads also are certainly paying attention to "Virgin," which has made about $72 million in its first three weeks, having made the second-most of this past weekend's releases and again beating a movie on its opening weekend. (That would be the superb "Constant Gardener," which has been getting a lot of accolades around the BlogPulse Simulated Water-Cooling Discussion Station.) Who knew a movie about Steve Carrell getting lucky for the first time would have such... ah... staying power?

Category: Moving Pictures