Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Films’ CG animated comedy, Barnyard, debuted to an estimated $16 million over the weekend, knocking Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest out of second place. Meanwhile, Sony’s NASCAR-racing farce, Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, raced to the top spot with around $47 million as last week’s champ, Universal’s Miami Vice, fell hard to No. 4 with approximately $9.6 million.
Barnyard fared much better than Warner Bros.’ The Ant Bully, which opened the previous weekend to just $8.4 million. Ant Bully followed on the heels of Sony’s Monster House, which remains the best performer of the latest crop of CG family flicks. The Zemeckis/Spielberg collaboration took in $22.2 million on opening weekend and scared up a three-week total of nearly $57 million. Monster House holds the No. 7 spot, just ahead of Ant Bully at No. 8.
On the subject of monsters, Lionsgate’s claustrophobic horror gore fest, The Descent, managed an estimated $8.8 million to open at No. 5 despite a fairly conservative roll-out in just over 2,000 theaters. The follow-up feature for Dog Soldiers director Neil Marshall debuted in the U.K. months ago and is already in DVD in Europe.
All things considered, it’s been a monster summer for animation with Disney/Pixar’s Cars and DreamWorks Animation’s Over the Hedge each earning well north of $200 million worldwide and three animated features currently occupying top-ten slots. The toon parade continues next month as we get 20th Century Fox’s/IDT’s Everybody’s Hero on Sept. 15, Miramax’s French animated thriller Renaissance on Sept. 22 and Sony Animation’s debut CG feature, Open Season, on Sept. 29.
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