U.S Box Office Report - 31st March - 2nd April 2006

1. Ice Age: The Meltdown  $70.5M - $70.5M
2. Inside Man  $15.7M - $52.8M
3. ATL  $12.5M - $12.5M
4. Failure to Launch  $6.62M - $73.2M
5. V for Vendetta  $6.46M - $56.8M
6. Stay Alive  $4.58M - $17.3M
7. She's the Man  $4.57M - $26.8M
8. Slither  $3.7M - $3.7M
9. The Shaggy Dog  $3.54M - $53.8M
10. Basic Instinct 2  $3.2M - $3.2M

A huge opening weekend for Ice Age 2, taking almost double of that of its predecessor. It easily marks the biggest opening of a movie this year. Further more, the movie opened bigger than Finding Nemo and will tie with The Incredibles if figures hold on Monday (Shrek2 holds the highest weekend box office for an animated movie with $108M). One further fact is that the movie opened on nearly 4,000 screens, only four other movies have opened on more screens.

EDIT: According to Comingsoon.net, Ice Age 2 now holds the highest March box office record.

Inside Man held strong at 2, losing 45% of business from last weekend. The movie is Spike Lee's best ever opening weekend and box office taking, even at this early stage. Roller-skating urban drama ATL opens at 3, this low budget movie opened on only 1600 screens and had a very strong screen/takings average. Had the movie open wider it could have surpassed Inside Man.

Failure to Launch continues to reap in the cash in its fourth week, comfortably recouping its $50 budget. The majority of its takings are coming from the 18-35 female demographic, who aren't really catered for by any other movie in the top ten (which has been the case for some time). Good news for Sarah Jessica Parker who now has two successful movies under her belt since Sex & The City finished (the other being The Family Stone)

The same can't be said for V for Vendetta. The movie is dropping quicker down the charts than would have been liked given the amount of hype and strong word of mouth the movie received. Having just covered its production budget this movie won't turn out to be the hit The Matrix was a few years ago but won't be a harsh disappointment either.

Videogame horror Stay Alive loses 57% of business from last week and will probably finish its domestic run around $30M. A quick DVD release should help it further.

Teen comedy She's The Man has also just covered its production budget and again, the movie is aimed at a pretty specific demographic, also not really served by any other movie in the top ten. This "narrow path" movie making can work very well for studios when they catch it right but can also be a risky option in that while you're aiming for a specific market, you're alienating others.

Slug horror-com Slither opens at a slightly disappointing 8. Taking only $3.7M, this could another case of the public just not getting that horror comedy b-movie vibe. See also Eight Legged Freaks. Shame as it looks a great deal of fun. I'm looking forward to it.

Tim Allen comedy The Shaggy Dog sees its last week on the charts and should also see a fast DVD release, where it will probably perform well.

And finally, coming in as something of a flop, is Basic Instinct 2. While the movie opened on only 1,450 it still failed to take anything approaching serious money given the films heritage and pre-release hype. Compare it to ATL which opened on 200 screens more yet saw a return of nearly 3 times as much. While the R rating probably hindered BI2, the general public just didn't seem that bothered anyway. Bound to be a disappointment for the makers and Stone herself, who saw a number of rewrites and directors before moving forward with the movie they have now. The first movie opened on 1800 screens and saw an opening weekend of $15M (and this was back in 1992, when $15M was a lot of box office).

One more note, Thankyou For Smoking, still in limited release had a very strong screen/takings average (the second highest in the top twenty after Ice Age 2). It'll add another 300 screens next week.