Top 10 for December 15-17, 2006 Summary: Sunday estimates are in.
Will Smith finished the weekend with a big smile on his face, as the box office superstar's feel-good drama The Pursuit of Happyness led all films in its opening weekend, giving the actor his sixth consecutive No. 1 opening with an estimated $27 million bow. Fox's dragon drama Eragon finished a strong second with $23.4 million, while Paramount's poorly marketing Charlotte's Web opened to a distant third with $12 million.
Despite posting his weakest debut since 2001's Ali, Will Smith's timely holiday release The Pursuit of Happyness debuted with an estimated $27 million, averaging a top ten best $9,467 in 2,852 theaters. Budgeted at $55 million, the Sony release enjoyed decent reviews and the still very strong box office draw of its star Will Smith, who earned a Best Actor in a Drama nomination at the Golden Globe Awards for his performance as a real life rags to riches homeless man in San Francisco. If word of mouth can stay strong throughout the Holiday season, expect Happyness to become Smith's tenth film to break the $100 million mark.
Fox's actioner Eragon shrugged off some of the worst reviews of any film this year (Chauncey Mabe of the South Florida Sentinel claimed the film "will suck the will to live right out of you.") to finish a strong second with an estimated $23.45 million. Budgeted at $100 million, the Stefen Fangmeier directed visual effects-laden picture (Fangmeier was previously a visual fx supervison at ILM) averaged an impressive $7,764 in 3,020 theaters, but with poor word of mouth expected, should experience steep declines in the coming weeks.
Despite launching its well-reviewed family film Charlotte's Web in an ultra-wide 3,566 theaters, Paramount curiously failed to back it with a strong marketing campaign, leading to a very disappointing $12 million bow in third and just a $3,372 per theater average. Strong word of mouth should help the film rebound this Holiday season, but with a budget of $85 million don't expect Charlotte's Web to reach profitability domestically.
Warner's holiday stint has been much more successful than its summer, thanks in large part to its blockbuster family pic Happy Feet, which fell just 34% despite three newcomers to an estimated $8.5 million, pushing its five week cume to an incredible $149.4 million. Sony's Cameron Diaz-Kate Winslet starrer The Holiday rounded out the top five, falling 36% in its sophomore frame to an estimated $8.2 million, pushing its ten-day cume to $25.3 million.
The smallest drop in the top ten went to New Line's The Nativity Story, which fell just 17% to an estimated $4.7 million. In three weeks, the $35 million budgeted picture has grossed a disappointing $23 million heading into the all-important Christmas weekend.
With no clear blockbuster picture leading the charge once again, the top ten films grossed an estimated $107.3 million, down 10% from last year's comparable frame when King Kong opened at No. 1 with $50.1 million.
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