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Two new comedies perked up the weekend box office to medium range business by late April standards and a sizable increase over the same time last year.

Shaping up to be an international hit, 21 scored $10 million last weekend from a coincidental 21 territories for a $21.1 million overall tally. Most impressive was its strong holds. The blackjack drama abated 34 percent in Germany, 33 percent in the United Kingdom and 26 percent in Spain. The movie is also poised to take in more than $1 million from two mid-sized markets: Greece and Sweden. New territories were collectively adequate due to a moderate screen count. In Russia, 21 nabbed a solid $2.2 million from 277 theaters, and other openings included Italy ($1.2 million), Argentina (first place $163,950) and Brazil (a satisfactory $634,480). 21 tours the Middle East this weekend along with Venezuela.

Lionsgate Vice Chairman Michael Burns is the force behind the company's ambitious plans to adapt Ayn Rand's epic novel, Atlas Shrugged, for the screen. The longtime admirer of Miss Rand's, from his early productive years working on Wall Street, eventually went West, co-founding the Hollywood Stock Exchange and joining Lionsgate's board of directors. Burns became the firm's vice chairman in 2000. Tyler PerryAngelina JolieBrad PittTom CruiseGeorge ClooneyMel GibsonTim McCanliesBen StillerWill FerrellJennifer Love HewittRussell CroweMarc ForsterDustin HoffmanClint EastwoodSteven Spielberg

A couple of new movies with decent appeal lifted weekend moviegoing above the same period last year, but overall business was still sub-par for the time of year. Jackie ChanJet LiJudd ApatowAl PacinoMichael Moore

Ho-hum new releases plagued the international box office last weekend, keeping Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who! on top for the third consecutive time. It was the first instance this year that the No. 1 picture didn't gross $10 million or more. Not helping matters have been a crop of horror movies, including Shutter, The Eye, One Missed Call, Prom Night and The Ruins, that saw meager business last weekend and none have earned more than $17 million in total. On the same weekend last year, Mr. Bean's Holiday and 300 continued their impressive runs while Perfect Stranger had a solid start and Disturbia kicked off its strong run.

Burbank, California—Martial arts masters Jackie Chan and Jet Li team in their first collaboration, The Forbidden Kingdom, and the result is nearly incomprehensible. Granted, this is not my favorite fare but I didn't understand half of what was going on and I made out only every other word from Chan's garbled narration. Rob MinkoffRobert BentonRachel PortmanAnthony Hopkins

More abstract and colorful than his first picture, House of Sand and Fog, director Vadim Perelman takes Evan Rachel Wood (Across the Universe) and Uma Thurman sleepwalking in a somber piece called The Life Before Her Eyes.

While on tour promoting his second motion picture, The Life Before Her Eyes, about a decisive moment during a school shooting massacre, House of Sand and Fog's director Vadim Perelman talked with Box Office Mojo about both movies. Perelman also discussed his next project, an adaptation of Atlas Shrugged. Ben KingsleyUma ThurmanJames Horner

With flagging holdovers and only one above average launch, overall business was down sharply again. The tally for 2008 now lags behind last year at the same time.

The foreign box office has slowed recently due to a lack of new movies. While Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who! continued to top the chart last weekend, there have been no contenders to dislodge it. The computer-animated comedy had a decent weekend of $10.7 million, lifting its tally to $90.4 million. Most of its holdovers had steep drops, and a $3.2 million opening in France buoyed its weekend. The movie adds six territories this weekend and will have debuted nearly everywhere by the end of the month.

The foul-mouthed, generically named Street Kings, starring Keanu Reeves and Forest Whitaker, is a campy slice of stale anti-heroism. Sometimes, lines are so awful it's impossible not to laugh.

Burbank, California—Judging by the juicy trailer shown at the ArcLight's new stadium-style theaters in Los Angeles' San Fernando Valley, Robert Downey Jr.'s hard rockin' Iron Man looks like it might be a special effects, comics showcase with brains, for a change. Downey—an extremely talented actor who shines in every role, especially Chaplin, Less Than Zero and the thoroughly benevolent Heart and Souls—steps into the metallic suit with his crackling rhythm and wit. Jon FavreauJeff BridgesAlbert Brooks

The box office doldrums continued as three high profile movies failed to score in their debuts and holdovers waned over the weekend. Dropping a decent 37 percent, gambling thriller 21 won by default with an estimated $15.1 million for a cool $46.5 million in ten days, but overall business was a bust again compared to the same weekends of recent years. What's more, after a strong start, 2008 will soon begin trailing 2007 at the same point. George ClooneyRenée Zellweger

At the foreign box office last weekend, Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who! climbed to the top spot despite dropping 46 percent. The computer-animated comedy bagged $13 million from 52 markets, lifting its total to $75.6 million, but saw steep post-Easter drops across the globe. One of its biggest was in the United Kingdom where it was off 68 percent, compared to a 49 percent fall for another family movie in the market, The Spiderwick Chronicles. Horton had only a few openings, including Taiwan (an impressive, top-ranked $357,303) and South Africa ($275,000), and it has yet to debut in several key markets like Poland, South Korea and Japan.

Burbank, California—Three recent movie-themed books are either instructive or indispensable. Leonard Maltin's annual Movie Guide contains a wealth of data from an independent-minded source who not only loves movies—he loves to know about movies, a claim few can credibly make. Steven SpielbergRobert BentonMike NicholsKatharine HepburnJohn Wayne

Leatherheads is Hollywood's latest George Clooney vehicle, supposedly a comedy about a football team in 1925. But Leatherheads is actually an unfocused, overloaded and self-indulgent mess. Renée ZellwegerJonathan Pryce

Four new movies gambled on nationwide releases and only one came up a winner during another soft time at the box office. Blackjack drama 21 chipped in a good opening gross, but overall weekend attendance was the lowest an end of March frame has seen since 1999. Tyler Perry

The top news at the foreign box office for Easter week was the record-breaking performance of Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis. On Wednesday, the French comedy reached $140 million and surpassed Titanic as France's highest grossing movie of all time. While Titanic still holds the local currency record, Bienvenue looks to fly past that mark as well, given its unprecedented $18.1 million fourth weekend, and the picture's 15.3 million admissions is the equivalent of 25 percent of the country's population, more than doubling the reach of last year's top grosser, Ratatouille. Overall, Bienvenue's weekend gross was $19.7 million from just three French-speaking territories, and its first non-French market will be the United Kingdom on April 1.

Burbank, California—Watching new trailers with the packed house at the Grove's Pacific Theater—which employs some of L.A.'s finest ushers and concessionaires—gave a preview of coming attractions. Surprisingly, 300's popular Gerard Butler is practically concealed in Walden Media's peek at Nim's Island, which puts child actress Abigail Breslin (No Reservations) and former child actress Jodie Foster (The Brave One) up front. Liam NeesonQueen LatifahSusan Sarandon

Paramount's Stop-Loss is overdone but pointed, the type of topical war drama Hollywood used to make for television, (Carol Burnett's searing 1979 Vietnam War picture, Friendly Fire, comes to mind). Because it's made by attention-deficit Music Television (MTV), which assumes everyone under 30 has the patience of a puppy, Stop-Loss doesn't rise to that level of quality. Channing Tatum