Tight race for this weekend's box office king

A very tight race indeed on what seeming is a slow weekend at theaters nationwide.

Buena Vista/Disney's "Race To Witch Mountain" starring Dwayne (Don't call me "The Rock" anymore!) Johnson took a commanding lead at the box office this weekend with a paltry estimated $6.8M in recipts on opening day... a bit better first day than the last BV Johnson release, "The Game Plan", which debuted to a $6.3 million Friday on its way to a $23 million weekend last year.

"The Last House on the Left", the remake of the same-titled 1972 Wes Craven horror flick, opened in second with an estimated $5.6 million... a similar beginning as another Craven remake, "The Hills Have Eyes", which grossed $5.6 million its first day.

"Watchmen" in it's second weekend nosedived 78 percent to an estimated $5.4 million, lifting its total to $73.4 million in eight days. Watchmen's Friday-to-Friday drop was one of the steepest, rating slightly worse than "X-Men: The Last Stand" and the first "Hulk" movie. However, Watchmen should pass The Last House on the Left for second place due to the latter having a more front-loaded weekend due to its genre and newness.

My predictions for this weekend's box office top 10:

1.) "Race To Witch Mountain"
2.) "Watchmen"
3.) "The Last House On The Left"
4.) "Taken"
5.) "Tyler Perry's Madea Goes To Jail"
6.) "Slumdog Millionaire"
7.) "Miss March"
8.) "He's Just Not That Into You"
9.) "Paul Blart: Mall Cop" (this thing just doesn't want to die!)
10.) "Coraline"

New nationwide releases scheduled for next Friday March 20th:

• "Duplicity" (Universal) Julia Roberts, Clive Owen -- CIA officer Claire Stenwick and MI6 agent Ray Koval have left the world of government intelligence to cash in on the highly profitable cold war raging between two rival multinational corporations. Their mission? Secure the formula for a product that will bring a fortune to the company that patents it first. (My rating: 3 1/2 stars)

• "I Love You Man" (Dreamworks) Paul Rudd, Jason Segel, Rashida Jones, Andy Samberg (from SNL), Jane Curtin (SNL alum) and Jaime Pressly (from NBC's "My Name Is Earl") -- A comedy from John Hamburg where a successful real estate agent gets engaged to the woman of his dreams, discovers that he has no male friend close enough to serve as his Best Man, embarks on a series of bizarre and awkward "man-dates," meets a dude with whom he instantly bonds, causing his relationship with the fiance to get weird, ultimately forcing him to choose between his fiance and his new found "bro". (My rating: 2 stars)

• "Knowing" (Summit) Nicolas Cage, Rose Byrne, Chandler Canterbury, Ben Mendelsohn, Adrienne Pickering, Nadia Townsend -- A single father and chairman of his town's historical society is summoned when a time capsule buried behind an elementary school in 1958 is prematurely unearthed because of a water-main break. The man, whose son attends the school, sifts through the contents and finds drawings of what 1958 tykes predicted the modern world would be like. It's all flying cars and fantasy stuff, with the exception of one chilling entry. One child predicted some of the most horrible events in recent history, and there's one that hasn't yet occurred, which the man attempts to prevent. (My rating: 4 stars)