U.S Box Office Report - 15th - 17th July 2005

1. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - $55,380,000 - $55M
2. Wedding Crashers - $32,225,000 - $32.2M
3. Fantastic Four - $22,725,000 - $100.1M
4. War of the Worlds - $15,000,000 - $192.1M
5. Batman Begins - $5,620,000 - $182.7M
6. Mr. and Mrs. Smith - $5,050,000 - $168M
7. Dark Water - $4,409,000 - $18.6M
8. Herbie: Fully Loaded - $3,355,000 - $55.7M
9. Bewitched - $2,400,000 - $56.8M
10. Madagascar - $2,100,000 - $183.8M

A very strong opening for Charlie, possibly Depp's biggest (If I recall correctly, Pirates started quite low but strong word of mouth kept it going) and Burton's. Meanwhile, the Wedding Crashers made a big splash for an R rated comedy. Fantastic Four has a big big drop off from last week but because the film was made relatively cheaply (for that kind of movie) it'll comfortably score a profit.

War of the Worlds continues to add strong box office and Batman, in its fifth week, is still sitting pretty in the fifth spot. A sequel is now a certainty. Elsewhere, the other new entry from last week dropped a few place and could well become another casualty of a packed out summer.

Charlie performed well but many are already asking what kind of influence the might of a new Harry Potter book had on its box office.

The summer is about to get even more packed with four movies opening next weekend, two of them very wide. The Island & The Bad News Bears open big (around 3000 screens each), while the horror sequel The Devil's Rejects and the Sundance hit Hustle & Flow open on a 1,000+ screens. Again, we're going to see casualties.

One tiny film is making more money per screen than any other movie - The Morgan Freeman narrated documentary March of the Penguins, is making a tonne of cash from just a few screens and expands to 1000 locations next week.