Are the Jonas Brothers sending out an S.O.S. at the box office?

The Jonas Bros. did well in their big screen debut, but not great.

Credit: AP Photo/Chris Pizzello

Perhaps expectations were too high after last year's surprising $31 million opening for the "Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert" movie, but Friday's debut of "Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience" proved once again lighting doesn't always strike twice. 

The Disney picture led the box office with $4.8 million and could do anywhere from $15-18 million this weekend, but after securing almost twice as many theaters as "Hannah's" debut (1,271 vs. 687) this has to be disappointing for the mouse house.  Reasons for the significantly lower opening will be attributed to "Hannah's" run being sold as a one week only engagement (extended of course) to an overestimation of the boy band's popularity and/or significant overexposure by the brothers at this point in their career.  However, with a reported budget in the low seven figures, the concert flick should still be very profitable for the company. 

Second place found a solid hold of $4.6 million for Tyler Perry's "Madea Goes To Jail."  The comedy/melodrama should easily gross anywhere from $12-14 million and end the weekend with $60-62 million.  Only ten days into its run, that cume will be close to Perry's "Madea's Family Reunion" which is current the filmmaker's highest grosser with $63 million.  With results like these, Lionsgate will certainly be clamoring for more Madea down the road.

" Slumdog Millionaire" got a nice Best Picture Oscar bounce, in its widest release yet, as it brought in $3.2 million.  Already at $106 million, the Fox Searchlight miracle could end up anywhere from $125-130 domestic when all is said and done. It's also Fox Searchlight's second $100 million grosser after last year's "Juno." 

The other major wide release this weekend, "Street Fighter: The Legend of CHun-Li" opened with a whimper (and not much of a marketing campaign) with only $1.7 million.  It will be lucky to get to $4.5 million by the end of the weekend.

And lastly, Friday saw "Taken" pass the $100 million mark.  A stunning achievement for the Liam Neeson thriller which wasn't initially seen as a legit box office player.

Here are Friday's results according to Box Office Mojo.  Full results for the weekend tomorrow on HitFix.

1. "Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience," $4.8 million
2. "Tyler Perry's Madea Goes to Jail," $4.6 million, $52.9 million to date
3. "Slumdog Millionaire," $3.2 million, $106 million to date
4. "Taken," $2.8 million, $100 million to date
5. "He's Just Not That Into You," $1.9 millio n, $74.5 million to date
6. "Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li," $1.7 million
7. "Confessions of a Shopaholic," $1.4 million, $30 million to date
8. "Paul Blart: Mall Cop," $1.4 million, $123 million to date
9. "Fired Up," $1.3 million, $7.6 million to date
10. "Coraline," $1.1 million, $57 million to date

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