U.S Box Office Report - 23nd - 25th June 2006

1. Click - $40M - $40M
2. Cars - $22.5M - $156M
3. Nacho Libre - $12.1M - $52.7M
4. Waist Deep - $9.45M - $9.45M
5. The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift - $9.2M - $42.6M
6. The Lake House - $8.3M - $29.2M
7. The Break-Up - $6.1M - $104M
8. Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties - $4.75M - $16M
9. X-Men: The Last Stand - $4.4M - $224M
10. The Da Vinci Code - $4M - $206M

Click moves into the top spot with ease but quite a bit lower than estimates had pegged it. Originally it was thought that Click would open around $47M with some going so far as to say this would be Sandler's biggest ever weekend opening, topping $50M in the process.

The movie opened lower than Anger Management and The Longest Yard but higher than the rest of his movies. People going in expecting riotous Sandler of Happy Gilmore etc found themselves a little disappointed with what they got. Still, another good result for Sandler but perhaps not the one that was hoped for. The worrying thing for the movie is Superman Returns opening late Tuesday meaning Click's chance of business is much lower given the new (and massive) competition it'll face earlier in the week than it normally would.

Cars seems to be finding its market now and slips just 33% from last weeks business. It was always thought that Cars was in it for the long haul and if it can manage a similar drop in the next few weeks it should see $200M by the end of its domestic run. On its own the movie has performed well and its only when it's held up against other Pixar movies does it prove to be a slight disappointment. Honestly though, I can't see Pixar losing any sleep.

Nacho Libre suffers a big drop of 57% from last weekend as many Jack Black fans were thought to have seen the movie on the opening day (opening Friday was the strongest for the movie) but it has easily recouped its production budget in less than week and it should still see at least $70M in its box office lifetime.

The indie action drama, Waist Deep, performed much stronger than anticipated and had the 2nd best screen to ticket ratio of any movie except for Click (but it was close - Click averaged $10,669 per location, from 3,749 screens, while Waist Deep took $9,414 on average from its 1,004 screens). The movie slipped under many radars and bested two of the bigger releases from last weekend (both of which are on at least 1500 more screens). A nice tidy profit for Rogue Pictures is coming.

Two of the big new entries last weekend fared quite differently this weekend. Tokyo Drift took more money than the Lake House but also saw the biggest drop off of any movie in the top ten. Losing a huge 61% of business from last weekend will see the movies screens reduced much quicker in the coming weeks and might well signal the end of the Fast & Furious franchise. A shame because the movie appears to have been the best reviewed of all three (but we know reviews count for nothing!)

The Lake House seems to be mining the 17-35 female demographic, the same group helped The Break Up clear $100M this weekend. A niche market faced with little else movie-wise to interest them can easily push a movie up beyond expectations. While The Lake House won't perform as well as The Break Up, it should still see a few more good weekend in the chart, clearing $50M.

As mentioned, The Break Up crossed over the $100M line and could well beat Notting Hill & How To Lose a Guy in Ten Days in the romantic comedy chart (My Big Fat Greek Wedding sits atop with $241M!)

Garfield 2 struggles in its 2nd weekend but does only lose 34% of business - perhaps some knock on business from people who're looking for a family movie and have already seen Cars? Any further sequels will likely be straight to DVD affairs without Bill Murray.

We round out the top ten with two older movies, X3 and Da Vinci Code. X3 is still the biggest box office hit of the year so far but that could all change with Superman & Pirates 2. Da Vinci crossed the $200M mark last weekend and closes on $700M worldwide.

Next weekend gets a little complicated given that one of the biggest movies of the year opens mid week. Superman Returns is expected to break a number of records but could see a reduced overall taking given it's long run time. The movie needs to take a lot of money and do it fast - the following weekend will see the return of Jack Sparrow - another movie expected to shatter records. Expect a clash of the titans over the next 2 to 3 weekends.