U.S Box Office Report - 25th - 27th August 2006

1.  Invincible - $17M - $17M
2. Talladega Nights - $8M - $127M
3. Little Miss Sunshine - $7.5M - $23M
4. Beerfest - $6.5 - $6.5M
5. Accepted - $6.4 - $21.1M
6. World Trade Center - $6.3M - $55.5M
7. Step Up - $6.1M - $50M
8. Idlewild - $5.8M - $5.8M
9. Snakes on a Plane - $5.8M - $26M
10. Barnyard: Par. $5.4M - $54.7M

Right then, here we go for another week. We've basically hit the point in the year when the big Autumn movies are still a time away, all the big blockbusters have pretty much come and gone and the studios still have a job lot of movies to dump onto an unsuspecting public. Not all of which are good.

Invincible is the new Marky Mark Wahlberg movie. Stop me if this sounds familiar. It tells the tell of a young kid who goes to an open day try-out for a football team. He gets the job and realises his dream. Similar to any twenty punching-the-air movies, along with similarities to Wahlberg's Rockstar a few year back. Still you can't argue with those numbers, it's the clear winner by $8M. It won't stay at the top long but it won't have cost a fortune and should return a tidy profit.

Ricky Bobby continues to perform well against new and old movies in the top ten. The movie is now the biggest comedy of the year, taking over The Break Up some time last week. It'll face more competition next weekend from a slew of new movies. Expect this to be its last weekend near the top. A good success for all concerned, but especially for Will Farrell, who had run foul of box office success for a while.

Little Miss Sunshine, a movie that's been playing in limited release to packed crowds gets to spread its weeks a little this week, adding 739 screens to bring its total to around 1400. The movie is already way into profit and had a very strong screen to takings average. The movie is still on less than half the screens that something like Invincible is showing on and has the potential to become a genuine sleeper hit.

The Broken Lizard movie Beerfest opens at number four this week, performing much better than Club Dread did upon initial release. The movie was made cheaply and will find strong DVD sales waiting thanks to fans of the movie and the Broken Lizard comedy troupe. The movie was made amazingly quickly and a few reviews have been quick to point out that it plays more like a series of sketches than an actual movie.

Accepted holds firm at five, losing just 35% of business from last weekend. The movie was made for just $23M and should recoup its production budget during the week. The success of the movie could be down to there being little to attract the teen market into cinema now they've been and seen Step Up. As we've seen time and time again, targeting a smaller market, while risky, can pay huge dividends.

World Trade Centre continues to perform well, crossing the $50M mark this weekend, and should see a production profit before the end of its cinematic run. The aforementioned Step Up also crossed the $50M mark this weekend and will surely have greenlit at least a couple of similar themed movies thanks to its success. Unlike Snakes on a Plane, the internet seems to have served Step Up well - it was mainly publicised via MySpace.com and saw an impressive opening weekend thanks in part to that.

The final new entry in the top ten is Idlewild, the Prohibition-set musical is the first official outing for the hip-hop group OutKast. The film has been delayed a couple of times, never a good sign, but had an impressive screen/taking total (the highest of any movie in the top ten). Its success this week and next will decide whether the movie opens wider in the coming weeks.

Snakes on a Plane drops 9 (!) places this weekend, bringing its total in what will be its last weekend on the charts to $26M. A disappointment all around for the internet hyped movie, with many box office analysts still baffled as to why the movie didn't clean up last weekend. Even positive word of mouth hasn't helped the movie and the studio will now be waiting to see if the movie can find a cult market on DVD. Expect a pre-Christmas release.

The top ten is rounded off by Barnyard, which has had the under 10 market pretty much to itself these past couple of weeks. Made for $51M, the movie currently sits pretty with $54M.

The only other major new release was the kid-friendly How to Eat Fried Worms, which opened on over 1800 yet utterly failed to find its market. Perhaps a parental off-putting title? The movie made just $3.9M and opened at number 12. Pirates 2 sat at no.11 and overtook Spiderman in all time box office this week and also became Disney's most successful movie ever, in regards box office takings.