Late April is traditionally a bad weekend for box office receipts. It's the last weekend before the summer blockbuster season officially begins and everyone's confused as to exactly what season there in and has to stay home to lie in a darkened room and gather their thoughts. But even by April standards, this weekend was a bust.
Shia LaBoeuf thriller Disturbia managed to comfortably hold the top spot for a third weekend running, with just $9.1million. That puts the $20million budgeted film at just over $52million and confirms LaBeouf as a viable box office draw, which will put the minds of Michael Bay and Steven Spielberg at rest.
Of the new entries, little ballyhooed thriller The Invisibles took number two with $7.6million and not at all ballyhooed Nic Cage sci-fi Next could muster only $7.2million, which will be a big disappointment after the success he had with Ghost Rider. At the lower end of the chart, The Condemned, the latest movie to try to turn a wrestling name into a movie star – this time 'Stone Cold' Steve Austin – hit the mat with $4million and Kicking It Old School, a Jamie Kennedy comedy that we can already envision in our heads, collapsed at number 11 with $2.8million.
This weekend also saw Hot Fuzz continue solid business, although it's a little disappointing after its very strong limited release last week. Its weekend takings of $4.78millon take the cop comedy up to a total $12.45million and it had the weekend's second highest screen average, but it will need a good push to keep the teen boy audience when Spider-Man 3 crawls all over the box office next week.