Sharks Kill Competition

October 11, 2004

For the first time in a month we saw a movie repeat on the top of the charts. Not only that, but Shark Tale held up better than expected. Even so, the overall weekend box was down 5.1% from last weekend, but down just 0.9% from last year.

Ironically, it's a film about fish that's showing the best legs of any wide release in a few months. Shark Tale dropped an amazing 34% to $31.3 million during its second weekend. So far the film has earned $87.4 million in just 10 days, more than it cost to produce. If it can match this success internationally, then it will be a huge hit for Dreamworks.

Also outperforming expectations was Friday Night Lights with $20.3 million. That's on par with fellow Football film, Remember the Titans, but even with great reviews it is unlikely to have the same legs.

Ladder 49's weekend haul of $13.1 million was close to expectations. And with a second weekend drop of just 40%, it is also showing better than average legs.

Failing to live up to lowered expectations. Not a good result for Taxi. The worst reviews of the weekend don't help matters either. However, the film was cheap to make, so the studio will still end up making money on this project once the home market is taken into account.

The Forgotten makes one last surprise finish in the top five with $7.6 million.

The last new wide release of the week, Raise Your Voice really struggled with just $4.0 million this weekend. The reviews were bad, but no worse than the last Hilary Duff vehicle. The best explanation for this result it probably too much, too fast. Maybe she should take a page from her sister's career and take a supporting role in a quirky independent film. On the plus side, the film was very inexpensive to make and it should earn enough on the home market to show a tidy profit.

One last note about the top ten, The Motorcycle Diaries managed an impressive 9th place finish with $1.5 million despite playing in only 167 theatres. And with the best per theatre average in the top 10, expect further expansion and perhaps a few more top 10 finishes.


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Filed under: Shark Tale, Ladder 49, The Forgotten, Friday Night Lights, Taxi, The Motorcycle Diaries, Raise Your Voice