Sony’s animated Monster House put up a good fight but couldn’t manage to sink Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest at the box office. Pirates raked in an estimated $35 million over the weekend to claim the top spot for the third consecutive week. The movie set a new record Saturday as it became the fastest pic to hit the $300 million domestic b.o. target [in its 16th day of release]. Meanwhile, Monster House performed best of all the newcomers, finishing in second place with around $23 million.
M. Night Shyamalan’s Lady in the Water stayed below the surface, placing third with an estimated $18.3 million. The director’s four previous films, The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, Signs and The Village, collectively earned more than $1.5 billion for Disney before creative differences caused a falling-out. Now it appears that Warner Bros. may have inherited the auteur’s least successful trip to the Twilight Zone.
Second-week comedy holdovers You, Me and Dupree from Universal and Little Man from Sony/Revolution Studios tickled more funny bones than newcomers Clerks II from MGM and My Super Ex-Girlfriend from 20th Century Fox. Dupree hung at No. 4 with around $12.7 million while Little Man finished out the top five with approximately $11 million. Budgeted at around $5 million, Kevin Smith’s Clerks sequel made a tidy profit with $9.6 million. Meanwhile, Ex-Girlfriend proved not so super with approximately $8.7 million for it’s debut.
Disney/Pixar’s Cars is still racing in the top-ten, picking up around $4.9 million over the weekend to bring its seven-week total close to $230 million. Warner Independent Pictures’ A Scanner Darkly, which last week managed to crack the top ten in limited release, dropped down to No. 13 this week with $661,000. Since opening three weeks ago, the rotoscoped Philip K. Dick adaptation has earned around $3.2 million, which is more than director Richard Linklater’s previous animated effort, 2001’s Waking Life, earned worldwide. Though mainstream success doesn’t appear to be in the cards, the star power of Keanu Reeves should yield decent overseas box office and a respectable run on home video.
Leave a Reply