Break ends Up on Top while Stand Falls Down

June 5, 2006

The post-holiday weekend hit the box office hard as the total fell to $135.8 million, down a massive 30.5% from last weekend. But more importantly it was up by 3.3% from the same weekend last year, which is in line with the year-to-date gains.

The Break-Up beat almost all expectations this weekend and earned one of the best openings ever for a romantic comedy at $39.2 million. This despite reviews that were low, but not terribly low when compared to other films in the genre. The Break-Up should have some legs and have no problem reaching $100 million, but it might struggle to get much further than that. On a side note, some sources are calling this the highest opening romantic comedy ever, however, Hitch opened with $43.1 million last year and is certainly in the same genre.

X-Men: The Last Stand broke another record this weekend by having the largest week-to-week drop-off ever in terms of raw dollars as it tumbled from $102.8 million to $34.0 million and percentwise, it wasn't too far off Hulk's 69.66% second weekend flameout. A lot has been said about this result with many people blaming it on the reviews, but 55% positive is much better than average and certainly can't explain 67% drop-off. What I feel can explain it better is the fanboy effect pure and simple. However, confirmation won't come until it reaches the home market. If it really was the quality of the movie that caused it to stumble like this, then the DVDs sales will suffer. If I'm right, then it should still be a huge seller.

Not only did Over the Hedge reach $100 million, it held on much better than expected as it remained in third with $20.6 million. This will be the last weekend it is a major player as Cars opens on Friday and it could lose a significant portion of its theatre count then. Even so, it should make its way to $150 million while showing a profit some time during its international run.

The Da Vinci Code also held on better than expected at $18.6 million, but it still fell to fourth this weekend. The film now has $172.0 million and is about two weeks from topping $200 million at the box office, which is more than enough to pay for its production budget. Depending on how much X-Men: The Last Stand recovers next weekend, it could be on pace to top that film when all is said and done with between $200 and $250 million.

Mission: Impossible 3 took fifth place with $4.7 million over the weekend and $122.7 million overall. That's a disappointing total, but not so much so that it won't eventually show a profit.

As expected, An Inconvenient Truth was able to finish in the top ten, but it did so with a better than expect result. The film's $1.4 million in 77 theatres gave it 9th place overall and the best per theatre average of the weekend. Next week it will more than double its theatre count and could rise a spot on the charts.

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Filed under: X-Men: The Last Stand, The Da Vinci Code, Over the Hedge, Mission: Impossible III, The Break-Up, An Inconvenient Truth