Clint Eastwood’s critically acclaimed new movie “Gran Torino” made a stop atop of this weekend’s box office leading the race with an estimated $29 million.

Beating strong competition from Kate Hudson and Anne Hathaway’s chick flick “Bride Wars,” Eastwood’s last film as an actor, which opened in mid-December for a limited audience, drew in quite a crowd once it expanded from 84 to 2,808 theaters making this the highest single-weekend total of the star’s esteemed six-decade Hollywood career. Since opening last month, "Gran Torino" has grossed $40.1 million.

The 78-year-old actor/director’s previous best weekend was with "Space Cowboys," which earned $18 million in 2000, while his most recent directing effort, "Changeling," starring Angelina Jolie, earned $9.4 million during its first weekend of national release.

“At this stage of his career, I think it's remarkable,” said Dan Fellman, head of distribution at Warner Bros., which released “Gran Torino.” “There are a lot of younger people that can identify with him in a role like this that maybe haven't seen him a role like this since `Dirty Harry.'”

The suburban drama, centers on the strong friendship between a racist and grumpy old man played by Eastwood, and his Asian neighbors, despite his early reluctance to the ethnic changes in his Detroit neighborhood.

Given the latest changes, Warner Brothers is hopeful that “Gran Torino,” which was largely ignored by other award groups, will impress Oscar voters the last minute. The deadline for ballots is the close of business on Monday.

However, Eastwood has plenty of reasons to feel lucky since he earned two Golden Globe nominations for Best Original Song (“Gran Torino,” performed with Jamie Callum) and Best Originial Score (“Changeling,” music written by Clint Eastwood).

Among moviegoers’ other options was Twentieth Century Fox's “Bride Wars,” starring Kate Hudson and Anne Hathaway as two best friends who have been dreaming about their perfect weddings ever since they were little girls but end up in a difficult situation when both their ceremonies get booked for the same day. The movie came on second place with $21.5 million beating out by only a small margin ($405,000) Universal’s horror offering “The Unborn,” which narrowly arrived in third place.

The weekend’s other new released included Sony’s low-budged faith-based drama “Not Easily Broken” about a married couple facing trouble in their relationship. The movie opened on no. 9 with $5.6 million.

Rounding up the top five were Jennifer Aniston and Owen Wilson’s family dog tale "Marley & Me," which slipped on the fourth spot from the top where it’s been for the last two weekends, with $11.4 million and Brad Pitt’s “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” which earned $9.4 million in its third week of release, bringing its total closer to the century mark with $94 million

Industrywide, the first weekend of the 2009 box office year marked a 4% improvement over the same frame last year with $146 million in collective grosses, according to Nielsen EDI data.