U.S Box Office Report - 15th - 17th June 2007

1. Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer - $57.4M - $57.4M
2. Ocean's Thirteen - $19.2M - $69.8M
3. Knocked Up - $14.5M - $90.4M
4. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End - $12M - $273.7M
5. Surf's Up - $9.3M - $34.6M
6. Shrek the Third - $9M - $297.2M
7. Nancy Drew - $7.1M - $7.1M
8. Hostel: Part II - $3M - $14.1M
9. Mr. Brooks -  $2.8M - $23M
10. Spider-Man 3 - $2.5M - $330M

Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer comfortably sees off all the competition this weekend to take the top spot and it does so with a slightly higher gross than the original FF4 movie did in 2005. That original didn't have a great deal of fans yet managed a domestic total of $154M and a global total of $330M. A sequel after those numbers was a dead cert, especially considering FF4 'only' cost $100M. Silver Surfer probably cost a little bit more but whether it'll go on to perform as well remains to be seen, more so this time around given the two wide releases due next weekend and the existing strong competition. For now, the early hype and impressive first trailer seemed to have paid dividends (the first trailer, like that of The Devil Wears Prada, was a single scene from the film) and the movie should cross the $100M mark without too much trouble.

After an ok opening last weekend, Ocean's 13 loses around 46% of its business this time around and will probably be relying on some strong international takes to shore up its slightly disappointing performance in the US. Ocean's 12's final international take was double that of its domestic total and with a large number of foreign markets still yet to see the film, there's every chance that 13 will repeat this pattern. Ocean's 11 still reigns surpreme in the series with a global total of $450M. The thinking now must surely be - would the film have benefitted from a December release like the previous ones? A pretty packed summer probably did the film more damage than a smaller December release would have done.

Our first major sleeper of the summer is Knocked Up, which continues to perform well against much bigger, flashier movies. From last weekend it's down just 26% and should see $100M by next weekend. This is win-win for everyone involved, a success for the studio who paid just $30M to make the movie, another hit for Judd Apatow and a firm launching ground for stardom for Seth Rogen. The film could see as much as $145M before the end of its domestic run.

Pirates 3, oh goodness Pirates 3. Each week I've said the movie has been disappointing and come Monday morning it's broken another record somewhere. On the one hand the movie is going to struggle to reach the $300M point in the US, more so given that next week will probably see its screen count begin to decline as theatre chains begin utilising screens for 1408, Evan Almighty and June 29th's Die Hard 4 and Ratatouille. Flip that coin though and you'll see the movie has crossed the half a billion dollar point in the international market, bringing its global total to nearly $800M after five weeks of release. When all the dust has settled the movie may well finish as the biggest international hit of 2007. Only Spiderman 3 has taken more but Pirates 3 still has some legs yet where as Spiderman has pretty much run his course.

Surf's Up loses another chunk of business in only its second weekend and will be marked down as a bit of a failure come the end of the year. The film failed to capitalize on its head start over Ratatouille and probably lost a good part of its potential audience this weekend to the Silver Surfer and to a lesser degree, Shrek The Third. It's doubtful the movie will see $50M. Speaking of Shrek, the green ogre almost crosses the $300M mark this weekend and has just one more week before Pixar hit hard. The franchise has hardly ran out of steam and with parts four and five already in production, it's anything but over. Shrek The Third sits ahead of the first movie but a long way behind the second, in terms of box office.

Our only other new entry is Nancy Drew, which failed to find much of audience with its demographic at Shrek The Third or Pirates 3. The modern updating of the classic teenage detective appeared to alienate fans of the original stories by dumbing down the character while simultaneously not being cool enough for its target audience of 12 year old girls. This will vanish fast.

The failure of Hostel 2 might signal the end of torture porn, for now at least. The Eli Roth directed sequel hasn't repeated the success of the first movie (which opened with nearly $20M) and will leave the top ten next weekend. The film should see a decent return on DVD, with the inevitable unrated version a near dead cert.

As mentioned in last week's report, Mr Brooks is still in the charts simply due to a lack of new releases. The film crossed the $20M mark this week to recoup its low budget but it won't get a mention in any end of year round up, with only a footnote for Kevin Costner going the extra mile and playing a bad guy.

Rounding out the top ten is Spiderman 3. The record breaking movie is still the biggest release of the year, with well over $875M to its name.

The long delayed Dead or Alive opened on just 500 screens (contractual obligation for sure) and failed to make the top ten.