U.S Box Office Report - 30th June - 2nd July 2006

1. Superman Returns - $52.1M - $84.2M
2. The Devil Wears Prada - $27M - $27M
3. Click - $19.4M - $77.9M
4. Cars - $14M - $182M
5. Nacho Libre - $6.19M - $65M
6. The Lake House - $4.51M - $38.7M
7. The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift - $4.4M - $51.7M
8. Waist Deep - $3.31M - $15.2M
9. The Break-Up - $2.8M - $110M
10. The Da Vinci Code - $2.3M - $210M

Right then, before we kick off - this is a holiday weekend so Superman Returns should see a stronger Monday and Tuesday than a film generally would as many people are taking both the Monday & Tuesday off work (only the Tuesday is a recognised holiday). That said, the movie will have been on general release for a week by that point and pretty much anyone who was desperate to see the movie will already have done so. That $84M might look good up there but believe me, it's massively disappointing in the studios eyes.

So here we go. SR opened strong on Wednesday and continued to perform well, if not exemplary, on Thursday. On Friday, when it should have been rocking the box office the movie only took $16M. It's at this point Warner's were probably starting to get worried. The movie had only the 21st best Wednesday haul of any movie and sits at 107th on the best single day taking.

It should clear $100M by Tuesday night but as above, by that point the movie will have been open a week and if it is showing signs of struggling by that point then when faced with Pirates 2 only three days later, the man of steel may well crumble. This will be a very interesting week and Warner's will be hoping that strong word of mouth will get more people into the cinema over the next few days than would normally attend. At an estimated price tag of $260M, the movie needs all the help it can get.

The people at Box Office Prophets are reporting that because the movie was in the works for so long, had pay or play deals attached and a lot of development cash thrown at it over the years, the budget is probably closer to $300M and that excludes advertising and prints costs

To put it into some perspective, here's some previous figures from this weekend, along with War of the Worlds, which was tracking very similar to Superman Returns at the start of its release...

Fantastic Four took about $56M
The Hulk took around $63M
War of the Worlds took around $65M
Spiderman 2 took around $88M

The movie performed better than King Kong and Batman Begins but whether it will have the legs of Batman Begins remains to be seen.

In hard at no.2 was the alternate programming of The Devil Wears Prada, which took a huge $27M from 2,800 screens (compare that to the 4,000+ of Superman). The movie was heavily skewed towards the female market and worked well to that crowd, along with fans of the book the movie was based on. Curiously Prada never had a proper trailer and began to build good word only in the past few weeks. Meryl Streep is winning some impressive notices and the movie should be in sight of its production budget ($45M) by the end of the holiday.

Last weeks no.1, Click, loses roughly half its business and drops to no.3. With more competition arriving next weekend, it won't beat The Longest Yard or Anger Management but should easily pass the $100M mark, and best 50 First Dates. The movie was made for $82M. Not the hit Sandler was hoping for but certainly no poor showing.

Cars is still hanging in there and showing some impressive staying power after its slightly disappointing opening. It's already taken more than A Bug's Life and has Toy Story firm in its sights. The next step up the ladder after that might prove tougher to take - Toy Story 2 took more than $245M.

Nacho Libre lost half its business from last weekend but has comfortably recouped its production budget and I'd imagine, it's prints & advertising budget too. Not the success that School of Rock was but proof that Jack Black can open a movie and make a success of it, when he's the star.

Facing competition from Prada, the romantic drama The Lake House still performed well and added another $4.5M to its total. Of the releases it shared its opening weekend with (Tokyo Drift, Nacho Libre & Garfield 2), the movie is performing the best at holding onto a bigger share of its audience from week to week.

Tokyo Drift crosses the $50M mark in its third week, and should finish its domestic run at around $60M. A disappointment for the franchise, the 2nd movie took more than $50M in its first weekend.

The surprise hit of last week, Waist Deep, takes a massive hit this weekend and sees a 64% in its box office total from last weekend. A fast track DVD release is assured.

The final places this week are held by The Break Up, which surely must be the sleeper hit of the summer so far, clocking up more than $110M in a packed blockbuster market, and the Da Vinci Code, which will see its last weekend on the chart, closing domestically at around $215-220M. It crossed the $700M mark in total global box office this weekend, easily making it the biggest film of the year so far.