Top 10 for June 16-18, 2006 Summary: Final numbers are in.
Despite four new films tearing out of the starting line this weekend, Pixar/Disney's animated hit Cars remained at the front of the pack in its sophomore frame, finishing with $33.7 million (revised up from an estimated $31.2 million). That pushes the film's ten-day take to a fabulous $117 million, but its 43% drop was larger than Pixar's three immediate predecessor The Incredibles (down 29% from a $70.5m opening), 2003's Finding Nemo (down 34% from a $70.3m bow), and 2001's Monster's Inc. (down 27.3% from its $62.5m opening).
On the flip side, the film is still a bona fide hit, and unlike The Incredibles and Monsters, Inc. (both of which opened in November), Cars has shown very strong returns through the weekdays thanks to its mid-summer release date and strong family demo appeal. It will face strong competition when Superman returns June 28th, and again when Disney's own Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Dead Man's Chest makes its eagerly-awaited debut. But the film seems destined to surpass $200 million domestically, which would make it only the seventh computer-animated film in history (and fourth Pixar film) to break the mark. No small feat indeed.
Mexico wrestling hit mainstream America as the Jack Black comedy Nacho Libre held off another strong newcomer in The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift with $28.3 million in second place. Averaging a top ten best $9,221 in 3,070 theaters, the $35 million budgeted Paramount comedy from Jared Hess (director of 2004's sleeper hit Napoleon Dynamite) led all films on Friday with an $11 million opening day, but slipped a troubling 14% to $9.4 million on Saturday, which could signal tough days ahead for the poorly-reviewed comedy.
Despite the overlying sentiment from many analysts that Universal had completely played out its street racing franchise The Fast and the Furious, their latest sequel The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift opened strongly in third $23.9 million, averaging a strong $7,920 in 3,027 theaters. Budgeted at $75 million, this latest saga -- which takes place on the streets of Tokyo -- lacked the star power of its predecessors, but maintained its appeal to the core Under 25 urban male demographic that has made the franchise so successful. Still, the opening was a far cry from the $40.1m debut of 2001's
The Fast and the Furious (which finished with $144.5 million domestically), as well as the $50.5m bow of 2003's 2 Fast 2 Furious ($127.2 million total). Don't expect this lastest race to come anywhere close to $100 million domestically.
My how they've changed. Twelve years after relative newcomer Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves thrilled audiences with the 1994 blockbuster Speed, the pair reunited in the time-bending romantic drama The Lake House, which debuted in fourth with an estimated $13.7 million. Averaging a solid $5,166 from 2,645 theaters, the PG-rated remake of the Korean drama Il Mare slogged through mostly negative reviews, but still managed to finish ahead of the third weekend for Jennifer Aniston's hit romantic comedy The Break-Up. Speaking of break-up, Universal's Jennifer Aniston-Vince Vaughn starrer adding $9.5 million to its coffers, bringing its three week cume to a phenomenal $91.9 million.
The last debut of the weekend was Fox's ill-advised sequel Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties, which flopped in its debut with an estimated $7.2 million in sixth. Averaging a disappointing $2,443 in 2,946 theaters, the sequel to the $75 million grossing Garfield: The Movie, which took in $21.7 million in its June 2004 debut, will likely see a quick exit out of the top ten.
Among holdovers, Sony's The DaVinci Code inched closer to $200 million, earning $5 million this weekend and pushing its five week take to $198.5 million. Internationally, the film has amassed an unbelievable $480 million, pushing its worldwide take to $678.5 million. X-Men: The Last Stand fell another precipitous 56% in its fourth weekend, bringing in an estimated $7.2 million. That pushes its domestic cume to $215.5 million, which makes this third edition the top-grossing film in the trilogy, surpassing the $214.9 million of 2003's X2: X-Men United.
Thanks to four new releases, the top ten films grossed an estimated $134.7 million, up 6% from last year's comparable frame when Batman Begins debuted on top with $48.7 million.
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