Clint Eastwood’s tough guy persona won audiences over last weekend, grossing $29 million, while Bride Wars and The Unborn had solid opening numbers.

Gran Torino took the top spot in its nationwide expansion to approximately 3,200 screens in 2,808 theaters. Gran Torino became the highest grossing opener of Clint Eastwood’s career. His previous high was Space Cowboys with $18.1 million. Torino has earned $40.1 million since its limited opening on Dec. 12th, and has been the most successful of the last three Eastwood’s  directed pictures: Changeling, Letter to Iwo Jima and Flags of Our Fathers. It seems audiences enjoy Eastwood’s tough guy persona, which is what fans have come to expect from previous Eastwood films such as Dirty Harry and Unforgiven.

Bride Wars had a solid opening grossing $21.5 million on 3,800 screens at 3,226 sites. The movie portrays two women (Anne Hathaway and Kate Hudson) who are best friends and brides-to-be who accidently book their weddings on the same day. Both refuse to move their wedding causing an all out war. The two strong female leads probably contributed to the movie’s successful opening.  Eighty percent of the audience was female, according to 20th Century Fox exit polls, and 52 percent was under the age of 25.

The supernatural horror flick, The Unborn did a frightful job, grossing $21.1 million on 2,500 screens in 2,357 theaters. This has been the first scary movie released in over two months, and research showed that 55 percent of the audience was female and 75 percent was under the age of 25, according to Univeral Pictures.

Marley & Me held on to fourth place this weekend grossing $11.4 million. It was down 53 percent, but it has grossed a whopping total of $123.7 million in 18 days. After its two-week reign as top dog, it bow(wow)ed to the new releases.

The other holiday releases suffered as well. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button earned $9.5 million last weekend, which is a 49 percent decrease from the previous weekend. It has earned $94.3 million in 18 days. Also, Bedtime Stories starring Adam Sandler was down 58 percent grossing $8.6 million with a total of $97.2 million in 18 days. Valkyrie was down 53 percent earning $6.7 million for a grand total of $71.5 million.

In ninth place, the new release Not Easily Broken earned $5.6 million on 780 screens at 724 theaters. The film follows a couple trying to save their failing marriage and find true happiness by reconnecting with one another. Sony Pictures exit polls showed that 70 percent of the audience was female and 69 percent were over the age of 30.

Slumdog Millionaire, which just won three Golden Globes, including Best Picture, earned another $3.7 million last weekend. It was down 20 percent from the previous week, but with the awards, it could continue its successful run. It has now earned $34.1 million after nine weeks.

The Reader, Revolutionary Road and The Wrestler all expanded this weekend. The Reader made $1.4 million at 507 theaters with a total of $5.5 million. Revolutionary Road earned the same at just 135 theaters for a total of $3.2 million. And The Wrestler starring Mickey Rouke, who won a Golden Globe for his performance in the film, earned $874,000 at 60 sites for a total of $2.8 million. The Wrestler will be expanding to more cities in the coming weeks.

—Jessica Delli Santi