It was a battle between two Oscar winners this past weekend - one in (Julia Roberts) a well-received drama and the other (Nicolas Cage) in a critically panned thriller.

You can guess how this ended.

Knowing, a film about a bunch of seemingly random numbers, found itself hitting all the right ones over the past three days. The Summit Entertainment project earned $24.6 million and a first place finish. The debut - a nice rebound from Cage’s showing with Bangkok Dangerous - also gave the actor his sixth best premiere ever.

Meanwhile, all eyes were on Julia Roberts and her first starring role in years. Although Duplicity‘s $13.9 million take was considered slightly disappointing, it actually did better than director Tony Gilroy’s last film. (Michael Clayton, starring George Clooney, only raked in $10.3 million during its first outing.)

1. Knowing, Summit, $24,604,751 (avg. $7384)
2. I Love You, Man, Paramount, $17,810,270 (avg. $6570)
3. Duplicity, Universal, $13,965,110 (avg. $5425)
4. Race to Witch Mountain, Disney, $12,786,041 (avg. $4012)
5. Watchmen, Warner Bros., $6,801,114 (avg. $1938)
6. The Last House on the Left, Universal, $5,776,160 (avg. $2405)
7. Taken, 20th Century Fox, $4,057,695 (avg. $1525)
8. Slumdog Millionaire, Fox Searchlight, $2,676,369 (avg. $1295)
9. Tyler Perry’s Madea Goes to Jail, Lionsgate, $2,566,535 (avg. $1399)
10. Coraline, Focus Features, $2,130,746 (avg. $1489)

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