U.S Box Office Report - 14th - 16th July 2006

1 Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest $62.2M - $258.2M
2 Little Man $21.7M - $21.7M
3 You, Me, and Dupree $21.3M - $21.3M
4 Superman Returns $11.6M - $163.6M
5 The Devil Wears Prada $10.5M - $83.6M
6 Cars $7.5M - $219.7M
7 Click $7.0M - $119.7M
8 The Lake House $1.6M - $48.9M
9 Nacho Libre $1.5M - $77.1M
10 A Scanner Darkly $1.2M - $1.8M

Pirates destroys all competition in its second weekend. A biggish drop from last weekend was obviously going to happen and is well within studio predictions. The movie has had incredible legs during the week, taking the Monday & Tuesday takings records in the process, as well as breaking most records last weekend.

The movie crossed the $200M mark in just 8 days, another new record. It still has a number of areas to open in but even at this stage in the year, it is the fifth biggest movie on a global scale for 2006 and currently sits as the biggest movie in the US for 2006 so far, from just 10 days of release. It's had a huge 2nd weekend, beating the opening weekends of MI3 & Superman Returns with ease.

The studio must be besides themselves with joy at the takings and knowing that they have an almost guranteed hit next year with the 2nd sequel.

The first of the new releases eases into 2nd place, but a long way behind Pirates 2. Little Man tells the story of a prospective adoptive father who mistakes a dwarfish thief as his new son (I kid you not). It was written, produced and stars members of the Wayan family who struck a bit of gold with their previous hit, White Chicks. The movie had a pretty good taking per screen but given it faces four more new movies next weekend, expect it drop fast and hard.

Opening on 600 screens more, the Owen Wilson comedy, You, Me & Dupree opened just behind Little Man. In fact, so close were the takings that they could exchange places when final numbers are announced on Monday afternoon. The movie stars Owen Wilson as the down-on-his-luck Dupree, friend of newly married Matt Dillon, who allows Dupree to live with him and his new wife (played by Kate Hudson) while he gets back on his feet. Certainly no Wedding Crashers, the movie was expected to see off Little Man, so while the $21M is seen as a success for The Wayans Comedy, the same amount for this movie is seen as a little disappointing.

At four sits poor Superman Returns, taking just $11M in its third weekend. It'll now be lucky to see $180M domestically and will need to rely heavily on foreign box office. It still has a number of countries to open so there is still plenty of chance for the movie to perform well, if not stunningly. But Warners are bound to be gutted that the movie won't make $200M domestically. Superman Returns has already begun to shed screens to make way for other movies.

Worse for Superman Returns is that the film that opened along side it, The Devil Wears Prada, continues to perform very well, down just 33% from last weekend. It currently sits at $83M and should see near $100M by the end of its run. With the way its performing there is every chance it will take more money in its fourth weekend than Superman will.

Cars edges closer to the box office taking of Toy Story 2. While it didn't outperform the previous Pixar movie on the opening weekend, it's certainly not giving up without a fight. Facing more competition than ever from a glut of CGI movies, Pixar still shine as the brand to beat.

Click should see $120M by Monday and will probably end up with around $130M come the end of its run. Not one of Sadler's best takings but certainly no disaster, and nothing like the poor turn out for the big budget Little Nicky.

The Lake House struggles closer to $50M while Nacho Libre hopes to clear $80M before it vanishes. Both movies are now on less than 1750 screens and that total will drop lower next weekend. Nacho will find a strong DVD market waiting for it, while the Lake House might have benefitted from being released later or earlier in the year, into a less crowded market.

Limited new release last week, A Scanner Darkly, adds 199 screens to its 17 from last week and just makes it into the top ten. The movie had a good location/takings average and should continue to expand over the coming weeks. But as I mentioned above, the movie may be lost among the four new movies hitting next weekend.

A quick note should be made for the documentary An Inconvenient Truth, which is now in its 8th weekend of release, still very limited, but carving out its own niche. The docu currently sits at no.11, with a location count of 570 and a total box office of $16M. Truth is Al Gore's global warming movie.

Next Week will clean out a few movies from the top ten. Will any of them be big enough to usurp Pirates 2?
We basically have something for everyone - kids with monster house, Teens with Clerks 2, rom-com girlfriend revenge for the female demographic and Lady in the Water for anyone who wants a little more thought & maturity with their movies. In fact, the next couple of weeks could see some pricey failures simply down to the glut of movies opening. Four next week, two more major movies the week after. And in the next three weekends we'll see a new kid-friendly CGI movie per weekend, with Monster House, The Ant Bully and The Barnyard. Summer is here, the winner of first place is almost assured, but the battle still rages on.