U.S Box Office Report - 2nd - 4th December 2005

1. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - $20.5M $230M
2. Aeon Flux - $13.1M $13.1M
3. Walk the Line - $10M $68.8M
4. Yours, Mine and Ours - $8.4M $34.6M
5. Just Friends - $5.9M $21.4M
6. Pride & Prejudice - $4.62M $22.6M
7. Rent - $4.6M $23.9M
8. Chicken Little - $4.51M $124M
9. Derailed - $2.42M $32.8M
10. In the Mix - $1.9M $8.66M

With only one new major release this week the box office just had a jiggle as opposed to a major shift. Harry Potter remains king of the roost, with $20M. The film is now only $20M more short of beating Askaban's total box office takings for its entire US run. As of this weekend, the film has made an estimate $438M worldwide.

Jumping into the second spot with a disappointing $13M is the real life movie of the cult MTV cartoon, Aeon Flux. Advertising has been careful not to play up the animated angle and the title alone could have knocked a few $$$ from its total (you'd be surprised how much a bad title can really cost a film. It's been said on more than one occasion that the Shawshank Redemption suffered for this very reason). A PG-13 film with Charlize Theron in spandex, blowing stuff up and kicking ass should have taken a few more million. The movie was not screened for critics and that's never a good sign.

Continuing to perform well is the Johnny Cash biopic Walk The Line. The movie has now more than doubled its costs and strong Oscar buzz surrounds the picture.

Yours, Mine & Ours slips a place but still manages to take in $8M. Next we have something of a box office anomaly. Two movies which are not new, one of which has been opened a few weeks, have both moved UP the charts. Pride and Prejudice & Just Friends both jumped up a spot thanks to good word of mouth. More amazing for Pride & Prejudice is that it is on the least number of screens of any of the top 12 movies.

Rent drops two places, looks like the Rent-heads have been as many times as they're going to. Below that is Chicken Little which has seen its total rise to $124M. The top ten is rounded out by the Clive Owen thriller Derailed, which has covered its costs which will make the Weinsteins happy as this was their first release from their new company. Lastly is the Usher comedy In The Mix, taking under two million.

Elsewhere of note was the George Clooney thriller Syriana, which is being shown on just 9 screens. It had the highest screen/ticket taking of any movie in the top 20, with a massive $54,000 per screen average (compare that to Harry Potter or Aeon Flux with $5,300 & 5,000 respectively). Syriana opens wide in the next week or so.