Top 10 for May 19-21, 2006 Summary: Final numbers are in.
It seems like Sony got the last laugh this weekend, as their flagship summer box office offering The Da Vinci Code not only posted the biggest opening of the year with its $77.07 million bow, but also the second largest global opening in history, amassing a mind-boggling $224 million thanks to a ridiculous $147 million international take. The tent pole summer pic shrugged off poor reviews thanks to a crafty say-nothing ad campaign and swirling controversy brought about by numerous conservative religious groups whose outspoken criticism of the film helped keep it buoyed in the press for weeks on end. It more than likely brought to theaters moviegoers who hadn't read the book, but were intrigued by the controversy nonetheless (Sony estimates that nearly half of all moviegoers hadn't read Dan Brown's wildly popular best seller).
For struggling Sony Pictures, who has had to stomach numerous big budget disasters over the past year, their $130 million budgeted Da Vinci Code was a make it or break it release. Launching in 3,735 theaters domestically and over 12,000 theaters internationally, the film was one of the costliest and widest launched films in movie history. Its $147 million international take also represented the biggest international opening in history, surpassing Star Wars Episode III's $145.5 million from last year. Helping its international awareness was its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival on Wednesday, something Sony declined to do with last year's box office disappointment Cinderella Man, which performed disastrously overseas.
Averaging a phenomenal $20,635 in 3,735 theaters, Code marked personal bests for both Tom Hanks and director Ron Howard. For Hanks, the debut crushed his previous best, 1998's Saving Private Ryan with $30.5 million. Howard's previous record was Universal's 2000 hit How the Grinch Stole Christmas with $55.08 million. With word of mouth likely to be shaky (early results have audiences giving the film a not-so-great B-) and stiff competition in the form of X-Men 3 next weekend, expect heavy declines in the coming weeks, but also a very happy Sony by summer's end.
Opening in second place with $38.4 million was DreamWorks Animation's computer-animated family comedy Over the Hedge. The debut was largely a disappointment for the animation heavyweight, which launched the film in the widest number of theaters this year (4,059 theaters), averaging $9,475 per theater. The numbers pale in comparison to Fox/Blue Sky Studios' worldwide blockbuster Ice Age: The Meltdown, which debuted with $68 million and averaged $17,163 in 3,964 theaters.
Featuring the voice talents of Bruce Willis, Garry Shandling, Steve Carell, Wanda Sykes and William Shatner, the PG-rated comedy also failed to reach the numbers of DreamWorks' own past hits Shark Tale ($47.6M) and Madagascar ($47.2M).
Despite having received better reviews than Ice Age 2, Over the Hedge was missing that competition-free weekend which befell late March's Meltdown. With a long Memorial Day weekend coming up, look for Over the Hedge to hold up very well in the coming weeks. However, don't expect Hedge to come close to Meltdown's $189 million domestically and over $600 million worldwide.
Lionsgate's latest horror entry See No Evil debuted in just 1,257 theaters with an estimated $4.3 million in sixth place, averaging a mediocre $3,461 per theater. Among holdovers, both Mission: Impossible III and Poseidon saw significant drops due to Code's record entry, falling 56% and 58% respectively.
For Paramount's MI: 3, its $11.3 million weekend placed it in third place, helping it become the first summer release to break the $100 million mark ($103m). Look for the film to finish with $135-140 million domestically. Worldwide, the Tom Cruise starrer has amassed a sizeable $266 million. Warner's $160 million gamble Poseidon finished with just $9.2 million in its second weekend, bringing its ten day cume to a hugely disappointing $36.7 million.
Out of the top ten was Fox/Blue Sky Studios' computer animated hit Ice Age: The Meltdown, which fell 68% to $987,000, bringing its eight week cume to a fabulous $189.3 million. Worldwide, the film has been a box office phenomenon, raking in $421 million, or a disproportionate 69% of its worldwide gross of $610.7 million. It's now sitting at #29 on the all-time worldwide list, and has an outside shot at reaching The Incredibles at #26 with $631 million.
With two big debuts, the top ten films grossed $153 million, down just 2% from last year's comparable frame when Star Wars Episode III opened with a staggering $108.4 million.
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