After the fantastic drop this weekend, a total of $85 million looks likely. Great legs for a movie that was expected to have horrible WOM.

I think the newfound legginess of Flightplan officially cements Jodie Foster as a new go-to for "strong woman" thrillers in Hollywood, as evidenced by the solid runs of this and Panic Room. Double Jeopardy, which grossed over $120M in September 1999, was also originally supposed to star her before she dropped out (pregnancy) and was replaced by Ashley Judd.

A lot of adults (myself included) love Jodie Foster. It is no surprsie that her movies do well. The fact that she always seems to chose interesting plots are a plus too.

Hasn't Jodie Foster always been the alpha femme for thrillers?

It's the one, and only genre where one single female lead can actually carry an entire movie to box office success. Probobly because guys can't act afraid or they are wimps; and we don't like our male heros wimpy - that implies that they could be gay! *shock horror* So why not have a bouncy woman with many male qualities but the ability to go all do-eyed bambi when a ghost pops out instead. That way guys don't feel threatened or demasculated, and the sexist balance of Hollywood returns to its norm.