U.S Box Office Report - 14th - 16th October 2005

1. The Fog - $12.2m - $12.2m
2. Wallace & Gromit - Curse of the Were-Rabbit - $11.7M - $33M
3. Elizabethtown - $11M - $11M
4. Flightplan - $6.4m - $70M
5. In Her Shoes - $6.1M - $20M
6. Domino - $6M - $6M
7. Two For The Money - $4.6M - $16.2M
8. A History of Violence - $3.6M - $22.3M
9. Corpse Bride - $3.4M - $47M
10. The Gospel - $3.2M - $12.1M

The poorly reviewed (not even screened for critics) PG-13 remake of The Fog takes the top spot but only just. It's already made back over half its budget but it'll tumble next week and fast. Sadly this will open the door for yet more glossy horror remakes that don't actually have any horror in them.

W&G hold strong at number 2 and have lost just 27% of their box office, an excellent retention rate. Strong word of mouth and lack of alternative movies for kids is doing it a lot of favours.

Cameron Crowe's Elizabethtown opens at 3 with a strong but disappointing $11M. Many experts had this taking the top spot this week. Early word of mouth was good but many critics slated it for over-indulgence by Crowe (the movie was edited down at the 11th hour). It'll be interesting to see how it plays out in the coming weeks. Certainly not Crowe's lowest or highest box office weekend but its bound to sting with the studio.

Flightplan refuses to go quietly into the night, having already seen off Serenity a few weeks ago. The Jodie Foster thriller is now in its 4th week and still holding off a number of arguably better films.

At 5 is the Diaz/Collette drama In Her Shoes. Losing a respectable 39% from last weeks business, it appears that the alternative programming is working somewhat, but like Elizabethtown, not working as well as studios had hoped.

But the biggest disappointment has to be the final new entry this week, Domino. Well hyped but released to poor - crap reviews, $6M is a very poor opening weekend and I would expect to see it drop further next week. This has got to be Tony Scott's lowest opening for some time. Will the blame be laid at the feet of Kiera Knightley or the person who cut together those awful "I. Am. A. Bounty. Hunter" trailers? Perhaps Knightley's appeal isn't quite strong enough to carry a movie yet.

The rest of the chart consists of one new entry from last week, the bookie drama Two for the Money, certainly not fairing as well as In Her Shoes, the movie it was set up against last week. Corpse Bride should see $50M before it leaves the top ten and last weeks "sleeper" entry The Gospel, drops from 5 to 10. The small movie has now made back three times its budget.

A movie to note is the number 8, A History of Violence, which has seen it's taking rise from last week as it moves up the chart from nine to number 8. Strong word of mouth is helping the movie find an adult audience.

One other mention goes to the limited release movie by George Clooney, Good Night and Good Luck, which added another 58 screens and saw it's box office rise accordingly. The movie made for just $7M currently sits at no.16, having made just over $2m so far, from just 69 screens.

Serenity stands at no.12 and has so far made $22.1M.