These are photos of Ben Affleck on his victory lap over the weekend with his wife Jennifer Garner and their two daughters. You’d think he would look much, much happier – he’s got a cute wife, cute kids, and his second time as director was a success. So successful, in fact, The Town took the #1 spot at the weekend box office. WOOHOO!

Actor/director Ben Affleck’s Warner Bros crime thriller is overperforming at the North American box office. Extrapolating from Friday’s $8.3M grosses and Saturday’s $9.4M (+12%), it will easily finish No. 1 this opening weekend when it was only predicted to come in 2nd. It received a “B+” CinemaScore. The R-rated movie’s estimated $23.6M was still well shy of the $28.6M of the same studio’s October 6, 2006, Boston crime thriller The Departed directed by Martin Scorsese. That “R”-rated film starred Jack Nicholson, Leonardo DiCaprio and Matt Damon and went on to win Best Picture Oscar. Affleck’s The Town is also in the running and stars Affleck, Jeremy Renner (The Hurt Locker) and Jon Hamm (Mad Men). Warner Bros even marketed it as The Departed 2. The studio, which financed The Town 50/50 with Legendary Pictures, paired its first trailer with Inception.

For his 2nd big directing effort after Gone Baby Gone also based on a book (Chuck Hogan’s Prince Of Thieves), Affleck promoted the heck out of it. He called movie journalists personally in Hollywood, NYC, flyover country, and eventually this month’s Venice and Toronto Film Festivals. Even so, at the start of this week, expectations were for The Town to open in only second place to a teen movie — and trail by a large margin. But the tracking spiked as the big TV ad campaign kicked it up a notch in the last few days. So Warner Bros distribution czar Dan Fellman pushed up the print count. I think Hollywood underestimated The Town’s great buzz among starving adult audiences but also its coolness quotient for ages 18-to-25. Trust me, Affleck’s career trajectory rarely happens in Hollywood: from Oscar-winning co-writer to tabloid heartthrob to washed-up star after Gigli to budding director to hot actor/helmer with the #1 movie. What an Industry!

[From Deadline]

I saw The Town on Friday, and I was impressed with it for the most part. I’d give it a B+/A-, mostly for the wonderful performances by the awesome ensemble cast – Jon Hamm, Jeremy Renner, and Pete Postlethwaite were especially strong, but I was kind of meh on the two women, Blake Lively and Rebecca Hall. Blake really put in a good effort, trying to look and act and sound trashy, but… I don’t know. It all felt very affected. And Hall… well, her strange lips kind of took me out of the movie. Minor kvetching, I know. As for Ben Affleck as star and director. Well, he has some moments of self-indulgence. He keeps the camera on his face for too long, and there are a couple of moments where I was like, “Um, do we need to watch his broad shoulders walking around Charlestown for a full two minutes?” But overall, he gave a solid performance and he was a solid director. As for the story… well, there was great action, and some really wonderful car chases and really suspenseful, even shocking moments. There is one major, glaring contradiction in the story, and I have no idea if it’s in the book as well, or if nobody really thought it mattered in the screenplay or whatever. I don’t want to do a spoiler, but if you saw the movie and you want to talk about it, email me!

Back to Ben and Jennifer and the kids… why does Ben always look so miserable around his wife? For the love of God, Ben! If you’re going to do a photo-op with your family, own it. Of course, Jennifer doesn’t look thrilled either. Maybe she wasn’t up for these photo ops? Haha, yeah, who am I kidding? I wonder what that negotiation was like? “I want to be touching for at least one photo.” “No.” “Please!” “Okay, one photo, but then I’m just going to sulk the rest of the time.”

Ben, Jennifer and the kids on Sept. 17 & 18, 2010. Credit: WENN and Fame.