''Wallace & Gromit'' beat Pacino and Diaz at the box office

A trio of big stars — Jodie Foster, Cameron Diaz, and Al Pacino — were no match for a guy and dog made out of clay, as Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit topped the box office chart this weekend. The first Wallace & Gromit feature film grossed $16.1 million, according to studio estimates — not a fantastic number but easily enough to claim the No. 1 spot.

Thanks in part to lackluster performances by the week’s other new releases, Jodie Foster’s Flightplan placed second, slipping only 27 percent to $10.8 million. Meanwhile, the Cameron Diaz/Toni Collette family drama In Her Shoes, premiered with $10 million, ahead of Al Pacino and Matthew McConaughey’s sports-gambling drama Two for the Money, which debuted with only $8.4 million.

The news was a bit better for the new drama The Gospel, which opened in only 969 theaters but still managed a per-theater average of $8,255, for a weekend tally of $8 million. But the restaurant comedy Waiting… only placed seventh with a dismal $5.7 million. Between this and the poor ratings for the new TV sitcom Kitchen Confidential, it looks like people just don’t want to know what happens behind those swinging doors.