Gangsters Whack the Bee

The Denzel Washington/Russell Crowe film chronicling the life of an “American Gangster” blew all of its competition away in this weekend’s U.S. theaters. It bested Jerry Seinfeld’s overly-hyped “Bee Movie” by a huge margin. “Bee” came in a distant second.

“American Gangster,” from Universal Pictures grabbed the lion’s share of box office receipts with $46.3 million and Seinfeld’s “Bee Movie” lagged $7.2 million behind, taking in $39.1 million. Although the beautifully done animated feature didn’t take first place, you won’t see Seinfeld or Paramount and DreamWorks shedding any tears of remorse. $39 mil is a nice 3-day take, especially for an animated feature.

The rest of the top contenders were “Saw IV” at $11 million, Steve Carell’s “Dan in Real Life” still doing well for Buena Vista ($8.1 million) in fourth. And, rounding out the top five weekenders was the horror/vampire flick “30 Days of Night.”

We will have the full Top 10 for you later.