After a late-August/early-September slump, box office numbers boomed this weekend past, with an increase in revenue of 26%.

Panning out exactly as analysts forecast, Jodie Foster’s Flightplan took the #1 spot by a healthy margin over both Tim Burton’s The Corpse Bride, and last week’s #1, Just Like Heaven. Foster’s latest frantic mom adventure, which has been picked apart and labelled airborne version of Panic Room combined with last year’s Forgotten, did very well, netting $24.5 million in its opening weekend. Apparently the thought of watching Jodie googly-eyed and yelling, in a search and protect mission for yet another daughter, was still appealing to movie-goers.

I had thought that with Tim Burton’s largesse and the growing acknowledgement of animated films as fare for both children and adults, that The Corpse Bride may just pull out an opening weekend #1. Somewhat disappointing, but not entirely unexpected, the Warner Bros. offering settled in after a strong performance at #2. The slightly squidgy subject matter, involving a live boy wanting to marry a dead girl, may have thrown easily disgusted folk off track. If the Bride wants to make a move on the top spot, it would be wise to do it this coming weekend, before the up-coming release of the next big animated feature, Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were Rabbit on October 7th.

Fox’s Roll Bounce, having a production cost of a ‘mere’ $20 million, found itself at #4 on opening weekend, collecting a decent $8 million in box office revenue. The roller-skating flick is the latest in a series of sportumentaries to land in theatres in recent years.

Upcoming for September 30th

Watch out for A History of Violence, which is set to hit an expended theatre set. It performed very strongly on a 14 cinema limited release, averaging $36,000 per venue — the highest average draw in the top thirty this weekend. Viggo Mortensen’s eccentric nature lends itself beautifully to the lead role, in which a small town diner owner is catapulted into the limelight when he saves his diners with surprising skill during a robbery attempt. The Mob, having seen his picture on television, is certain that he is someone they have been looking for and so pay him a visit. I know I’ll be ‘visiting’ this Cronenberg work as soon as humanly possible.

Another current limited release may rise to join it. Proof, starring Gwyneth Paltrow, Sir Anthony Hopkins, and Jake Gyllenhaal, deals with the impacts of mental illness not only on the sufferer, but on their loved ones and acquaintances as well.

Also released are Into the Blue, and Joss Whedon’s sci-fi extravaganza Serenity. Depending on how many Buffy fans Whedon can coax to the theatres on opening weekend, Serenity may be the surprise success of the entire pack.