Hedge Edged Out By Code

DreamWorks’ animated Over the Hedge earned a tidy sum at the North American box office over the weekend, but more moviegoers were intrigued by a fictional mystery surrounding the works of Leonardo Da Vinci. Sony’s The DaVinci Code raked in an estimated $77 million to Hedge‘s $37.2 million to easily win the top spot.

Directed by Tim Johnson (Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas, Antz) and scribe Karey Kirkpatrick (James and the Giant Peach, Chicken Run), Over the Hedge is based on the comic strip of the same name by Michael Fry and T. Lewis. Despite the tough competition, the toon adaptation did more than double the domestic business of DreamWorks Animation’s last release, Aardman’s clay-animated Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, which opened last September with just north of $16 million. However, Hedge fell short of matching the $47 million opening weekend enjoyed by last summer’s Madagascar, which had the benefit of a Memorial Day debut. So far, the toon to beat this year is Fox Animation’s and Blue Sky Studios’ Ice Age: The Meltdown, which earned a whopping $68 right out of the gate.

Paramount’s Mission Impossible III continues to do respectable business in its third week. The Tom Cruise action vehicle took in another $11 million to put it over the $100 million mark, while Warner Bros.’ vfx-driven Poseidon sunk down the chart to No. 4 with around $9.2 million. Made for around $160 million, the disaster remake has only made approximately $36.7 million in two weeks. Sony’s Robin Williams comedy, RV, drove off with a fifth-place finish with around $5.1 million.

Since it’s based on the most popular book of the decade, Ron Howard’s filmed adaptation of Dan Bown’s The Da Vinci Code offers few surprises and is expected to lose a good chunk of its audience next week. Meanwhile, CG-animated movies are known for having long legs and DreamWorks’ latest may just get enough positive word of mouth to propel it to No. 1 during the week. Next weekend sees the arrival of more stiff competition in the form of 20th Century Fox’s X-Men: The Last Stand.