It was a good news/bad news weekend for Adam Sandler and Judd Apatow. The good news was that their collaboration “Funny People” finished first at the box office, with an estimated $23 million. The bad news was that it was the worst opening for a Sandler comedy in five years and the weakest bow for any of the three films that Apatow has directed.

Not that Sandler’s fans care about any of that spreadsheet stuff; but Box Office Mojo reports that the movie itself didn’t test very well with his young, male fanbase, which couldn’t reconcile his usual crude humor with the serious leukemia subplot.

“Funny People” did fare better than Sandler’s more serious movies–”Spanglish,” “Reign Over Me” and my personal favorite of his films, “Punch-Drunk Love.” But with a budget estimated between $70-100 milion, this comedy/drama hybrid might prove to be a costly gamble.

“Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” beat back the gun-toting guinea pigs of “G-Force” to take second place. The new kidflick “Aliens in the Attic,” which wasn’t screened for critics, crash-landed in fifth place, behind “The Ugly Truth.”

Overall, the box office was down significantly from a year ago, when “The Dark Knight” was blowing up huge.

This Friday, “G.I. Joe” has a chance to whip the economy back into shape; but it’s yet another movie that isn’t being screened for critics, so that doesn’t bode well. Plus, nobody in the movie is actually named Joe. At least “Funny People” featured a few, um, funny people.