New Oliver Stone Flick "W" Limps Into Fourth Place

So, how do you want your biased bio-pic served up? You want it served up as good news as "edged out for first place" or do you want the cold hard reality "fourth place behind Secret Life of Bees".

The cold hard reality is where the movie is stuck, and it's not going to get any better. It's heading towards oblivion as the fourth place movie in a soft week.

Movie-goers elected a "W,'' but it was Mark Wahlberg, not George W. Bush.

Wahlberg's action flick "Max Payne'' debuted with $18 million to outdo Oliver Stone's film biography of George W. Bush, according to studio estimates Sunday.

Stone's "W.'' actually ran fourth, opening with $10.6 million to finish behind the family comedy ``Beverly Hills Chihuahua'' (No. 2 with $11.2 million) and the chick flick "The Secret Life of Bees'' (No. 3 with $11.1 million).

"For me, an Oliver Stone film about George Bush doesn't necessarily scream big box office,'' said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Media By Numbers. "A film like this is very tough to gauge, but this is exactly what I thought it would do.''

Lionsgate's "W.,'' starring Josh Brolin as Bush, came in well behind the $18.7 million debut of Stone's last movie, 2006's Sept. 11 saga "World Trade Center.'' That movie opened in nearly 3,000 theaters, about 900 more than "W.,'' however.

The movie is going to be heading towards oblivion, although I'm sure the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences will be sending nominations towards the movie. It's pretty much inevitable.