They're always about a person struggling to do his best, whether that's Daddy Day Care or Paul Blart: Mall Cop.

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But the box office is also down 23% from 2009 when little movies like Paul Blart: Mall Cop and Taken were early season sleeper hits.

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But films like "Mall Cop" could succeed in any financial climate, said Jeanine Basinger, a film historian and chairwoman of the film studies department at Wesleyan University in Connecticut.

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January and February used to be slow but with the success of films like Mall Cop and Taken (both of which were released in January), even that has become a somewhat interesting time to release films.

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