Looks like Pixar’s run of hit films isn’t stopping any time soon… While Cars might not have racked up the astounding early box office of Finding Nemo and The Incredibles, we doubt that the ‘toon titan’s chief John Lasseter will be too disappointed with a $62.8 million box office launch.
It’s true that this latest animated release faces a lot more competition than previous Pixar films – from the likes of Over The Hedge, which is already out and now at fifth place in this weekend’s chart, and Monster House, which has scared up a 21 July release date. But given that all the previous Pixar movies have shown strong legs, Cars will likely have plenty of fuel left in its box office tank.
The other big studio release, The Omen, got the jump on everyone else thanks to that 06/06/06 release date. Despite a healthy $12.5 million opening day, the momentum didn’t quite hold and the devilish remake could only grab fourth place for the week, with $35.7 million ($15.4 million of that over the weekend). Still, it remains the biggest opener ever on… a Tuesday. (Insert your own crickets sound effect here).
Finally, proving that smaller movies with a more limited, but devoted niche can open well, Robert Altman’s latest – A Prairie Home Companion – took in $4.6 million, despite only opening on 760 screens. Not to run any salt into Poseidon’s already gaping wounds, but the disaster movie only took in $1.8 million this weekend, despite showing at 1,724. And yes, we know Poseidon has been in the top 10 for five weeks. Don’t go looking for it there next week…
Speaking of which, the big fight will be between Jack Black’s stretchy pants in Nacho Libre and Lucas Black (no relation)’s drifty cars for The Fast And The Furious: Tokyo Drift. But could Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves’ time-hopping romance The Lake House pull a surprise? Oh, and there’s a Garfield sequel. Don't laugh, it's happened before.
Oh dark lords of studio mathematics… Bring us the charts!
Title
Weekend Gross
Total Gross
Week #
1
Cars $62,800,000
$62,800,000
1
2
The Break-Up $20,495,000
$74,095,000
2
3
X-Men: The Last Stand
$15,550,000
$201,716,000
3
4
The Omen
$15,450,000
$35,725,000
1
5
Over The Hedge
$10,301,000
$130,394,000
4
6
The Da Vinci Code
$10,300,000
$189,028,000
4
7
A Prairie Home Companion
$4,671,000
$4,671,000
1
8
Mission: Impossible III
$3,039,000
$127,509,000
6
9
RV $2,000,000
$65,011,000
7
10
**Poseidon
**
$1,840,000
$54,935,000
5