According to Boxofficemojo, Sony (NYSE: SNE)'s 21 movie was number one over this past weekend at the domestic marketplace, taking in an estimated $15 million. This number may change once the final data comes in, but its worth noting that 21 is doing well for Sony's studio -- the casino movie's total gross so far is around $46 million, and if the numbers hold, this will be the second weekend in the top spot for the picture.

A movie that had a lot of buzz, George Clooney's period-sports comedy Leatherheads, came in second (maybe; I'll get to this in a sec) with $13.5 million. It's distributed by General Electric (NYSE: GE)'s Universal asset, and I have to say that it didn't feel like the movie would top the charts. Nevertheless, it came pretty close, and I have to admit that I thought it was going to totally bomb: didn't look interesting, didn't look like the kind of idea that I'd allocate capital toward, and its marketing campaign didn't seem too thrilling. But since George Clooney was attached to it, I'm sure studio execs were extremely confident. Maybe a fall release would have been better for this one.

And then we have News Corp. (NYSE: NWS)'s Fox, which was perhaps disappointed on the one hand and happy on the other. Nim's Island came in third, and third is almost always a glum spot for a debut rank. But Fox's Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who!, which is still kicking in fourth place, has now grossed approximately $131 million after four weekends. Fox is certainly pleased with that one. I don't know when the company plans on releasing the DVD, but this box-office performance would seem to portend a brisk-selling DVD during the holiday season. However, Nim's Island is estimated right now to have grossed $13.3 million. When the hard stats are in, it could easily displace Leatherheads and take second best for the weekend. Poor George Clooney.