U.S Box Office Report - 20th - 22nd July 2007

1. I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry - $34.7M - $34.7M
2. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - $32.1M - $207.5M
3. Hairspray - $27.8M - $27.8M
4. Transformers -  $20.5M - $262.9M
5. Ratatouille - $11M - $165.6M
6. Live Free or Die Hard - $7.3M - $116.4M
7. License to Wed -  $3.7M - $38.6M
8. 1408 - $2.6M - $67.5M
9. Evan Almighty - $2.4M - $93.4M
10. Knocked Up - $2.3M - $142.7M

Just a quick report this week, been to a wedding over the weekend and still shattered now (from the journey rather than too much drink). Chuck & Larry took the top spot from the very successful Harry Potter this weekend. The Adam Sandler comedy performed on the lower side of expectations, with Sandler's last major release, Click, taking $40M on its opening weekend. Sandler's best opening still belongs to the $47M weekend of The Longest Yard. The movie faced competition from Harry Potter and Hairspray, not to mention a couple of older releases that are still taking a sizeable bite out of the box office. Chuck & Larry needs to have a good week as The Simpsons Movie will be in direct competition for the same market next weekend. The movie should go forward in the coming weeks to pass the $100M mark but won't surpass the takings of Click or The Longest Yard.

Harry Potter might have retained the top spot (and may still, as the above numbers are still the weekend estimates) if it wasn't for...himself. With the release of final book in the series at midnight on Friday the movie saw the majority of its repeat business vastly reduced. It should pick up a little next weekend but the film is already a huge success, especially in global terms, having taken a huge $558M in just 10 days. The movie is less than $45M behind the total domestic gross of Prisoner of Askaban and just over $55M short of the total domestic take of Chamber of Secrets. While the book may have harmed the movie in its second weekend, it acted as the perfect tonic in the previous week for those waiting on that final book.

Hairspray, the remake of the 1988 John Waters film performed much better than estimates had originally pegged it, taking nearly $28M. The musical, starring John Travolta, in the role originally made famous by Divine, Chris Walken and Michelle Pfeffier (in her first movie since 2002), had the second best screen/takings average of any movie in the top 15. This marks Travolta's second biggest opening for a movie, his first being the huge $39M made by Wild Hogs in March, and could signal something of a second resurrection for his career.

Transformers is now threatening to become the biggest movie of the year. It should easily cross $300M in the coming weeks and needs only to beat the $335M total of Spiderman 3 to be crowned biggest movie of 2007.

Ratatouille, which has had a couple of not-bad percentage drops in the last couple of weekends, is starting to slow down, and might actually struggle to make $200M. The film, which might be the best reviewed movie of the year, has had to face off against some of the biggest releases of 2007, not to mention having a title that could easily confuse people and a plot featuring a rat in a French kitchen. Next up for Pixar is Wall-E.

Die Hard 4 recoups its production budget this weekend and edges closer to $250M in the global market. License to Wed tries its best against the huge summer movies and may yet see another weekend on the charts due to a lack of major new releases. 1408 should finish up with around $80M while Evan Almighty might just make it to $100M. Finally, Knocked Up will probably see its last weekend on the chart but could still go on to make $150M by the end of its run.

Next week, two movies which opened limited this weekend will expand onto many more screens, joined by a major new release,