Mall Cop? Mall Cop?

As strange as it may sound, Kevin James just took down Clint Eastwood, Notorious B.I.G. and a serial killer to become the current box office champ. Paul Blart: Mall Cop‘s $40 million take was the second biggest ever for a January opener. (Cloverfield took in $46.1 million at this same time last year.) The comedy was also partially responsible for giving the industry its largest MLK weekend of all time.

Although it only debuted in fourth place, Notorious actually scored a knockout. The Sean Combs-produced biopic had the best per screen average ($14,652) of any film in the Top Ten. Meanwhile, Golden Globe-winner Slumdog Millionaire made its reentry at #10. The film which raked in $12,285 per screen is planning to expand to over 1200 locations (up from 582) next Friday.

1. Paul Blart: Mall Cop, Sony, $39,000,000 (avg. $12,405)
2. Gran Torino, Warner Bros., $26,215,000 (avg. $8821)
3. My Bloody Valentine 3D, Lionsgate, $24,240,000 (avg. $9566)
4. Notorious, Fox Searchlight, $24,000,000 (avg. $14,652)
5. Hotel for Dogs, Paramount, $22,500,000 (avg. $6879)
6. Bride Wars, 20th Century Fox, $14,025,000 (avg. $4345)
7. The Unborn, Universal, $10,993,000 (avg. $4660)
8. Defiance, Paramount Vantage, $10,700,000 (avg. $5981)
9. Marley & Me, 20th Century Fox, $7,450,000 (avg. $2524)
10. Slumdog Millionaire, Fox Searchlight, $7,150,000 (avg. $12,285)

(You can review last week’s numbers here.)