The dog days of summer afflicted the US box office weekend, with box office results down and a batch of new releases scoring less than impressive openings.
Top of the heap was Disney’s new based-on-truth American Football drama Invincible. The sight of Mark Wahlberg in shoulder pads was worth $17 million to the movie-going public.
Still, that was far better than the next highest new opener, Beerfest. The latest Broken Lizard comedy arrived flat in the barrel making only $6.5 million. Admittedly, it was cheaper to make than some of the other films in the charts, but compare its result to the fact that the Lizards’ breakthrough film Super Troopers took about the same on its opening – and that was on almost half the cinemas.
Also arriving with a dull wet thud was kiddie film How To Eat Fried Worms, which couldn’t even crack the top 10 with $4 million. Doing slightly better was OutKast’s long-delayed musical Idlewild, hot-shoe shuffling into ninth place with $5.7 million and the highest per screen average of the top ten.
It was up to the returning films to keep the side up. Talladega Nights continues to bring in the punters, sticking at second and grabbing $8 million. It’ll soon be the highest-grossing comedy of the year. Farm ‘toon Barnyard is also showing meaty legs – the movie made $5.6 million this weekend, for a current total of $55 million. And Little Miss Sunshine opened in more screens, leaping up to third with $7.3 million. It has now taken more than $23 million – not bad for a small Sundance purchase…
Finally, what of those Snakes? They came tumbling out of their lofty place at the top to land at seventh. Looks like the venom won’t be holding up.
A passing game with lots of action on the wing. That’s how you win the charts!
Title
Weekend Gross
Total Gross
Week #
1
**Invincible
** $117,031,122
$17,031,122
1
2
Talladega Nights: The Ballad Of Ricky Bobby $8,122,642
$127,806,521
4
3
**Little Miss Sunshine
**
$7,371,263
$22,895,257
5
4
**Beerfest
**
$7,031,228
$7,031,228
1
5
**World Trade Center
**
$6,473,299
$55,642,517
3
6
**Accepted
**
$6,344,475
$20,986,355
2
7
**Snakes On A Plane
**
$6,167,000
$26,319,390
2
8
**Step Up
**
$6,163,780
$50,395,874
3
9
Idlewild
$5,745,780
$5,745,780
1
10
**Barnyard: The Original Party Animals
**
$5,652,932
$54,930,100
4