Dancing and aliens couldn’t knock down the boxing robots.

Real Steel, starring Hugh Jackman, kept its top spot at the box office, although just barely. Falling a respectable 40.3% to earn $16.3 million bringing its domestic box office total to $51.7 million.

Coming in second was the remake of Footloose with $16.1 million. There is a chance that once the final tallies come out later today that #1 and #2 could switch places, but it was definitely a close call.

The Thing shape shifted its way into a disappointing third place with a meager $8.7 million. Things aren’t looking too good for this remake … what a shock.

The Ides of March, the latest George Clooney vehicle, did a pretty good job of holding on, falling 28.4% to bring in $7.5 million, bringing its domestic total for two weeks to $22.1 million.

Wrapping up the top five was Dolphin Tale which slipped a further 30.2% to bring in $6.3 million.

This week’s other semi-high profile opening for The Big Year starring Steve Martin, Jack Black and Owen Wilson debuted in eighth place with an abysmal $3.3 million.  With a so-so advertising campaign that completely ignored the bird watching premise of the story, this isn’t a huge surprise, but still ranks as one of the worst openings for all three actors.

Next weekend has Johnny English Reborn, The Mighty Macs, Paranormal Activity 3 and The Three Musketeers. The only one with any real hope of doing well, in my opinion is the third entry in the Paranormal Activity series, and even that I have low hopes for.

I Don’t Know How She Does It? $32,000 this weekend bringing its domestic total to $9.569 million off a $24 million budget. This just gets uglier with each passing weekend.

Apparently this weekend was a time for folks to head to the theater and watch robots fighting it out with one another.

Real Steel, starring Hugh Jackman, made it to the top of the box office over the weekend with an estimated $27.3 million.  A healthy showing for a fall debut, and exit polling was mostly positive, so it’ll probably have some life to it.  Who knew people were so anxious to see boxing robots?

Coming in a distant second was George Clooney’s political drama, The Ides of March.  The new film landed with $10.4 million which is squarely in the center of George Clooney movies as of late.  Not a huge disappointment, but there’s a reason these sorts of films usually hit in the fall.  Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy a good political thriller … at home.

Dolphin Tale slipped 34.2% to land in third, bringing in $9.16 million. A decent performance for any film in its third weekend, and brings its domestic total to $49 million off of a $37 million budget.

The Brad Pitt vehicle, Moneyball, came in fourth with $7.5 million inching its cumulative total to $49.5 million off of a $50 million budget, so it still has some ways to go for it to hit profitability.

Rounding out the top five was the cancer drama 50/50 with an estimated fall of 36.4% to $5.5 million. Considering the dark subject matter, this is a surprising hold for the film.

Next weekend is a mess with the remake of Footloose, the prequel to The Thing and The Big Year.

And from the “movie disasters” department, the Sarah Jessica Parker vehicle, I Don’t Know How She Does It lost 505 theaters and took a 76.8% fall to a paltry $93,000. This brings the total to $9.48 million off of a $24 million budget. I don’t picture Ms. Parker getting a whole lot of work any time soon.

The winners for the 81st annual Academy Awards have been announced, and, not too much to my surprise, I have seen hardly any of these films so far.  I have been dying to see Slumdog Millionaire, and surprisingly, it is actually in my town now!  I’m going to try to sneak out of work and see it as soon as possible.

That being said, there weren’t too many surprises with this year’s awards.  Slumdog Millionaire winning just about everything was expected, but I find it fascinating for all of the awards it won, it received no acting nominations.  Did the script just magically appear on screen without anyone acting it?

- Kudos to Kate Winslet for finally winning on her sixth outing.  She is a great actress and has been deserving for some time of winning.

- Heath Ledger put in an amazing performance in The Dark Knight, but I wonder how much of his win was his passing away and how much was truly the role.  I felt he was deserving, but you will alway shave to wonder.

- Hugh Jackman did a good job hosting, although the format was way different than it has been in the past.  And yay for him getting to sing.

- How was Don LaFontaine left out of the remembrance video of those who passed this year?  He was the voice of the movies to millions of people.

- What was Whoopi Goldberg wearing?  Did she get dressed in the dark?

- On the flip side… Tina Fey was… wow.

- Speaking of Tina Fey, her bit with Steve Martin was fantastic just for the thinly veiled joke at Scientology.  A mighty brave move in Hollywood these days considering the big names that buy in to that sham of a “religion”.  Wonder how many of the millions of people watching actually caught the meaning of that joke.

See all the nominees and the winners after the jump.

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