SAMURAI CRUISES AT THE BOX OFFICE

Tom Cruise is box office gold. Gold, I tell ya! His latest film, The Last Samurai, is a two-and-a-half hour period epic about a Civil War veteran who travels to Japan to train an army. It brought in $24.4 million making it far and away the biggest movie of the weekend, despite the fact that it is a two-and-a-half hour period epic about a Civil War veteran who travels to Japan to train an army.

In second place was Jessica Alba’s dancerific flick, Honey, about a girl who wants to dance. Not in a Showgirls kind of way. Or in a Flashdance kind of way. Or even in a Save the Last Dance kind of way. But in a hip-hop kind of way. Honey did $14 million, though reviews which compared the movie to Glitter.

Here’s the rest of the Top 10: #3 The Haunted Mansion ($9.5m); #4 Elf ($8.1m); #5 Dr. Seuss’ The Cat in the Hat ($7.3m); #6 Bad Santa ($7m); #7 Gothika ($5.3m); #8 The Missing ($4.4m); #9 Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World ($3.8m); #10 Love Actually ($3.7m).