War Of The Worlds Conquers Box Office

Well, it's the Fourth of July today, which fans of Independence Day will remember as the day that "the world declared with one voice, 'We will not go quietly into the night!'", according to the US President at the time (Bill Pullman). Of course, it's also a day when all Americans go hold a barbeque instead of announcing any new film projects or even calculating the total box office for the weekend, which means that it's a news day slower than a sloth's pet snail. But the news must go on anyway, and so we bring you another story of alien invasion. Spielberg's War of the Worlds landed at the box office on Wednesday, and has so far made more than $204 million worldwide, of which $101.7 million comes from the US. Over the three days of the weekend proper (Friday-Sunday) the film made $66 million, which is the second biggest Fourth-of-July weekend ever, behind Spider-Man 2's $88.2 million last year. In the rest of the world, the film made $102.5 million over the five days. That's the biggest ever opening for a non-sequel, and the fifth biggest opening ever internationally. (The four films to climb to $100 million faster internationally were Episode III, Return of the King, The Matrix Revolutions and Harry Potter and the Prisoner Of Azkaban). All in all, Spielberg must be feeling pretty relaxed as shooting continues on his Untitled Munich Olympics Project, which he started even before War was released last week. This next project is bound to be the most controversial of his career, and the director has entered into detailed consultation with diplomats, religious leaders and historians in order to avoid misinterpretation or political turmoil around the film. Let's hope, for everyone's sake, that the tabloids wait to see the film before deciding that it's anti-Jewish / Palestinian / Narnian / whatever. We'll bring you the full box office report when all our Yankee brethren get back to work tomorrow.