Paul Blart: Mall Cop is a 2009 American action comedy film directed by Steve Carr and co-written by Kevin James, who stars as the title character, Paul Blart. Filming began in February 2008 with most of the shooting taking place at the Burlington Mall in Burlington, Massachusetts. The film opened in the United States on January 16, 2009, distributed by Columbia Pictures Despite receiving mostly mixed reviews, the film went on to become a box office success. Created on a relatively small budget of $26 million, it grossed $31.8 million in its opening weekend and finished with a domestic gross of more than $146 million. Its worldwide total exceeded $183 million. Paul Blart (Kevin James) is a middle-aged, single dad who lives with his teenage daughter, Maya (Raini Rodriguez), and elderly mother, Margaret (Shirley Knight). Though he aspires to become a member of the New Jersey State Police, his hypoglycemic medical condition gives him a tendency to collapse and causes him to fail the entran...