Taking Thursday night receipts into consideration, Snakes on a Plane narrowly won a neck-and-neck race with Will Ferrell in a racecar over the weekend. New Line Cinema’s airborne creature feature earned an estimated $15.2 million to snatch the top spot from Sony’s Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby. Still, Snakes was expected to perform better considering the amount of buzz the film has generated via the Internet and general public discourse. Judging by reviews that have been rolling in since its opening, New Line may have done the flick a great disservice by not holding press screenings.
Snakes on a Plane stars Samuel L. Jackson, who manages to avoid being upstaged by a crateful of CG-animated reptiles. The film’s numerous visual effects shots were provided by CafeFX, Hybride and Pacific Title under vfx supervisor Erik Henry.
Talladega Nights took in an estimated $14.1 million to bring its total to a whopping $114.6 million. Set in the world of NASCAR racing, the movie clearly took the checkered flag for comedy this year, cementing Ferrell’s status as a box-office draw. Meanwhile, the events of Sept. 11, 2001, have proved less appealing to summer moviegoers. Following the tepid performance of Universal’s United 93, Oliver Stone’s World Trade Center debuted last week to $18.7 million and trailed off by more than 40% in week two. The true story of New York City police officers took in an estimated $10.8 million over the weekend for a third-place finish.
Universal’s college comedy, Accepted, debuted at No. 4 with around $10.1 million. Buena Vista’s Step Up rounds out the top five with an estimated $9.8 million in its second week, while Paramount/Nickelodeon Movies’ Barnyard: The Original Party Animals retains a top-ten spot with nearly $7.5 million. Made for around $50 million, the animated comedy has chewed up approximately $46 million domestically over the past three weeks and has yet to open overseas.
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