U.S Box Office Report - 19th - 21st May 2006

1. The Da Vinci Code - $77M - $77M
2. Over the Hedge - $37.2M - $37.2M
3. Mission: Impossible III - $11M - $103M
4. Poseidon - $9.2M - $36.8M
5. R.V. - $5.1M - $50.4M
6. See No Evil - $4.35M - $4.35M
7. Just My Luck - $3.38M - $10.5M
8. An American Haunting - $1.66M - $13.6M
9. United 93 - $1.4M - $28.3M
10. Akeelah and the Bee - $1M - $15.7M

The controversy surrounding the Da Vinci Code appears to have done anything but keep people from seeing it. Opening with a huge $77M for the three day weekend, including a strong $29M for Friday, the movie easily took the top spot. The movie opened with the 7th highest single day taking and the 13th biggest May opening. If those numbers weren't big enough, the movie also took $147M in foreign markets (the movie opened on about 9,000 screens worldwide) bringing its worldwide total to $224M. Only Revenge of the Sith last summer took more in worldwide ticket sales for an opening weekend ($253M (worldwide info thanks to joblo.com)

Riding on the success of the book, which has sold in excess of 60M copies worldwide, the Da Vinci Code was always assured of a strong opening weekend, though estimates put it in the lower 60s. The movie has fought off court cases, worldwide calls for a boycott and some scathing reviews at home and from Cannes. Easily Tom Hanks' biggest opening weekend (closest is Saving Private Ryan with $30M). Curiously, the film broke box office records in Italy, where the film had faced the widest condemnation.

Animated comedy Over The Hedge slotted into second with a strong box office of $37M. Unlike the recent disaster that was The Wild, OTH had been receiving some good word of mouth and is being seen as counter-programming for those families with younger children, for whom seeing The Da Vinci Code wasn't an option.

Dropping into third in its third week is MI3, which finally passes the $100M mark - something it was expected to do within the first 10-12 days of release. Worldwide the movie has taken $224M. Hard to believe that the movie flopped in the eyes of the studio. While there won't be any tears over it, the movie has called into question the closest to the a sure thing that Hollywood had. It'll be interesting to see what Cruise does next.

Poseidon loses nearly 60% of business from last weekend and is certainly the biggest flop since last years "The Island". It'll be taken off a large number of screens from next weekend and a September DVD release is surely calling.

R.V is still hanging in there. Maybe not generating stellar box office but certainly holding its own against some of the bigger movies that it has faced since release. The movie has just recouped its production budget.

The final new entry in the top ten is horror movie See No Evil, starring WWE wrestler Kane (the movie is part funded/produced by the WWE). Only costing $8M the movie will make it back before leaving the chart and like many horror movies of late, will clean up on DVD.

Just My Luck, Lindsay Lohan's first foray out of the teen market takes a tumble from last weekend and will probably finish with around $15M, meanwhile American Haunting sits just shy of its production budget in its third weekend on the chart.

Rounding out the top ten is United 93 and Akeelah The Bee, having taking $28M & $15.7M respectively. Both movies have been in the charts for four weeks and this will likely be their last on the charts. Both movies where made cheaply and have performed well on their limited number of screens.

Next week, just one movie opening wide over Memorial Day. It'll be interesting to see how it faces up against The Da Vinci Code...