Will Ferrell’s Ricky Bobby continued to prove he was a winner as Talladega Nights drove past the competition to snatch victory a second time according to the US studio box office estimates.
Despite a 51% drop from its opening weekend to $23 million, The Ballad Of Ricky Bobby managed to stay on top. And that was despite an unexpectedly strong showing from this week’s second-placed film, Step Up, which smartly went straight for the audience unlikely to be charmed by Ricky- teenage girls.
Following in the tradition of Bring It On and Save The Last Dance, Step Up sees dance partners putting aside their differences and hot-shoe-shufflin’ their hearts out. It clearly worked for the target teens and opened to $21 million, far beyond expectation.
Keeping strictly within its own expectations, Oliver Stone’s September 11 drama World Trade Center finished at third with $19 million, which added to the take since its Wednesday opening meant a running total of $26.8 million.
Performing with less power – but without the hefty budget to recoup – was Pulse, the latest adaptation of a Japanese thriller title to hit American shores. Despite Veronica Mars’ Kristen Bell and Lost’s Ian Somerhalder as the leads, it only made $8.5.
Worse off was both Sony’s reputation for creating blockbuster superhero tales and Tim Allen’s run of family hits – Zoom, starring the Shaggy Dog Santa Claus, crashed and burned into eighth place with just $4.6 million. Looks like someone found their kryptonite. That’ll teach ‘em for not screening it to critics (okay, probably not, but still…)
Elsewhere it was attack of the returns as Barnyard managed to stay healthy at fourth, The Descent dropped a couple of places but stayed strong at seventh, Miami Vice began to fall from the charts and Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest Full Of Cash yo-ho-lowered down to sixth place. Still, with $392.4 million in the US alone and international releases coughing up the dough, no one from Disney’s going to be upset. Unless they were sacked in the recent downsizing. Bad Mickey. Bad!
Warning: Some chart content may not be suitable for adults…
Title
Weekend Gross
Total Gross
Week #
1
**Talladega Nights: The Ballad Of Ricky Bobby
** $23,000,000
$91,217,000
2
2
**Step Up
** $21,065,000
$21,065,000
1
3
**World Trade Center
**
$19,016,000
$26,818,000
1
4
**Barnyard
**
$10,69,000
$34,085,000
2
5
**Pulse
**
$8,456,000
$8,456,000
1
6
**Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
**
$7,207,000
$392,400,000
6
7
**The Descent
**
$4,600,000
$17,527,000
2
8
**Zoom
**
$4,600,000
$4,600,000
1
9
Miami Vice
$4,547,000
$55,112,000
3
10
**Monster House
**
$3,300,000
$63,678,000
4