U.S Box Office Report - 12th - 14th May 2006

1. Mission: Impossible III - $24.5M - $84.6M
2. Poseidon - $20.3M - $20.3M
3. R.V. - $9.5M - $42.8M
4. Just My Luck - $5.5M - $5.5M
5. An American Haunting - $3.69M - $10.9M
6. United 93 - $3.6M - $25.6M
7. Stick It - $3.24M - $22.2M
8. Ice Age: The Meltdown - $2.98M - $187M
9. Silent Hill - $2.2M - $44.5M
10. Hoot - $2.12M - $6.21M

Well Tom Cruise keeps the top spot for another week, that noise is a huge sigh of relief from all concerned, apart from WB who had to settle for second place with their disaster flick Poseidon. MI3 is already being deemed a disaster of epic proportions in some quarters, which is probably a bit premature and also pretty inaccurate. The movie has easily crossed the $100M for worldwide takings but many are blaming Tom Cruise's increasingly erratic behaviour and near constant media presence as the reason why the movie hasn't edged closer to a $100M in the US. Word of mouth for the movie is still very strong and the movie lost just under half its box office from last weekend. Next week will be interesting.

Poseidon performed at about the level it was expected to - and that isn't good. The movie cost more than MI3 to make and certainly hasn't performed anywhere near as well, not even securing the top spot. Furthermore, as these are estimates it might be revealed that movie hasn't cleared $20M when final numbers are released. The movie, a remake of the Irwin Allen disaster epic had no real major "Star" pull (that's Hollywood's fault for not putting Kurt Russell up for every movie going!!) so had to rely purely on special FX and story. The FX don't let the film down but word is that everything else does. With the movie eschewing even basic character development in favour of a very fast pace (run time is only 100 minutes), expect this movie to sink faster than the titanic in the coming weekends. (According to ComingSoon.net, both of Petersen's last movies The Perfect Storm & Troy, took roughly double what Poseidon took).

In its third week R.V continues to perform well and begins to approach its production budget. It still has a number of territories to debut in which should help move it along into profit.

The only other major release debuts at number four. Just My Luck, Lindsay Lohan's first non-teen role stalls a little at $5.5M. Estimates had the movie taking a couple more million and brings into questions Lohan's appeal and her power to open a movie on her own, at least one that isn't strictly aimed at the kid-teen market.

An American Haunting drops just $36% from last weekend and actually had a higher takings/screenings average that Just My Luck. The independently made & released movie was produced for just $14M.

Also dropping roughly the same amount is United 93. The movie is now in its third weekend and continues to hang in there. While not a huge success (was it ever going to be?) the movie has certainly confounded critics who said America just wasn't ready for a 9/11 movie.

Teen drama Stick It drops three places and will likely leave the charts in the next week or so. Curiosly enough, $500,000 between the four movies in 4th, 5th, 6th & 7th could have seen quite a different top ten. The movies are close enough in takings that again, come the final numbers we might see a couple of those movies swapping places.

Now in its 7th weekend and probably its last in the top ten, Ice Age 2 still manages just under $3M. The movie has taken a massive amount worldwide and it's a sure bet that we'll see a third.

Rounding out the top ten are Silent Hill, which edges close to its production budget, and Hoot, which has flopped quite badly. The movie had been tagged for potential alternate programming to the big blockbusters but failed to find its market (perhaps people are revisiting Ice Age 2 for their family movie fix?). While the movie only cost $15M to make, prints for the movie cost almost as much.

Goal! The Dream Begins, opened at number 12 with a taking of $2.3M. The movie has performed well elsewhere and the sequel should be released around September '06 in Europe.