EDWARD BURNS - STUDIOS PREPARE FOR SLOW JANUARY

With January regarded as traditionally a slow month for the movie industry, only one film, Warner Bros.' One Missed Call, starring Edward Burns and Shannyn Sossaman, is scheduled to open this weekend. The result is that National Treasure: Book of Secrets is likely to repeat as the top film for the third week in a row, earning between $18 million and $22 million, analysts predicted. Fox Searchlight's Juno, which played in only about 1,000 theaters last weekend -- but still wound up in fifth place in the box-office standings -- is due to double that number this weekend and is expected to give films like Alvin and the Chipmunks, I am Legend and Charlie Wilson's War, which finished second, third, and fourth last weekend, a run for the money.

03/01/2008