This weekends box office saw Bee Movie take the no. 1 spot grossing $26 mil with American Gangster following close behind at $24.3 mil. Meanwhile, Tom Cruise’s first release for United Artists, Lions for Lambs, opened in fourth place and grossed a meager $6.7 mil. It came behind the weekends other new release, the Vince Vaughn driven comedy, Fred Claus, which grossed $19.2 mil.

Tom Cruise is said to not be happy. He planned on making a big splash for his first United Artists release.

“It was more about how the industry was going to view him than the moviegoing public that Tom was worried about.”

… reps at United Artists say they’re “proud.” Says one rep: “We performed right at the pre-weekend predictions and are glad to have done that. Given the modest production and marketing budgets we do not need to be a blockbuster hit. Everyone at United Artists are very proud of the film and could not have had a more perfect filmmaker to have made our first film.”

People, Scientologists in particular, named a myriad of reasons why Lions for Lambs didn’t take no. 1. Marketing, retread of tired subject matter, poor reviews, the intergalactic miscreant known as Zoyox who used his mind control ray to sway the opinions of the American public, high price of tickets ($10!). Whatever. It’s the same excuses every time.

Tom Cruise’s disappointing weekend [MSNBC]
Box Office Week 45 [Box Office Mojo]