U.S Box Office Report - 23rd - 25th September 2005

1. Flightplan - $24M - $24M
2. The Corpse Bride - $20.1M - $20.6M
3. Just Like Heaven - $9.8M - $29M
4. Roll Bounce $8M - $8M
5. The Exorcism of Emily Rose - $7.5M - $62.3M
6. Lord of War - $4.9M - $17M
7. The 40-Year-Old Virgin - $4M - $96M
8. The Constant Gardener - $2.2M $27.3M
9. Transporter 2 - $2.1M $39M
10. Cry_Wolf - $2.1M - $7.3M

Box office-wise, a pretty low week. The Jodie Foster thriller Flightplan takes the top spot as many predicted though more expected The Corpse Bride to just beat it. 'Bride' was well reviewed and Jodie Foster earned a few good notices for her role but neither movie set the box office alight. It does seem summer is truly over now. Though Bride didn't score that highly, it did much better than A Nightmare Before Christmas did in its opening weekend.


Elsewhere, last weeks number 1 slips to number 3 but does so with only a 40% drop off, which isn't that bad. Expect the movie to finish up on about $65M domestically.

The other new entry, Roll Bounce, a movie set in the 70s which features a roller skating dance off as the main theme, did well to score $8M from mostly poor reviews.

Emily Rose appears to be holding onto the demons and a spot near the top. A late summer sleeper for sure. The Nic Cage action/dramedy Lord of War doesn't appear to have found its market though and stands little chance of doing much more business. Disappointing in that it looked the least generic of recent releases.

Strong word of mouth is keeping the Constant Gardener in the top ten even though it's being shown on fewer screens than any other film in the chart. The 40 Year Old Virgin seems to be doing a repeat of The Wedding Crashers and hanging on in there for dear life. Whilst not repeating the stellar business of Crashers, it's still turning a tidy profit.

Last weeks horror new entry Cry_Wolf is on the way out as is previous box office number 1 The Transporter 2.

Next week will see the eagerly waited release of the Joss Whedon movie Serenity. Whether it will be a stand alone hit remains to be seen but strong early word could easily propel it to the number one spot. The Jessica Alba action movie, Into the Blue, about hidden cargo found in the ocean by divers, cargo that belongs to a local drug lord, is Serenitys only real competition. Early word on that is not so good.

Also opening bigger this week is the David Cronenberg movie A History of Violence. This could easily be his biggest hit since The Fly and is certainly his most mainstream movie for some time. Viggo Mortensen starring doesn't hurt the movie either. The film opened in limited theatres this week and scored the highest box office to screen average (14 screens taking $0.5M) The same couldn't be said for Polanski's Oliver Twist, which also opened on a limited number of screens.

Serenity should take no1 with a Box Office of around $30M, with Flightplan and Corpse Bride taking 2 & 3. Into the Blue may well slip into the number 4 spot.