U.S Box Office Report - 3rd - 5th February 2006

1. When a Stranger Calls - $22M - $22M
2. Big Momma's House 2 - $13.3M - $45.4M
3. Nanny McPhee - $9.9M - $26.6M
4. Brokeback Mountain - $5.68M - $59.8M
5. Hoodwinked - $5.3M - $44.1M
6. Underworld: Evolution - $5.1M - $52.7M
7. Something New - $5.02M - $5.02M
8. Annapolis - $3.48M - $12.9M
9. Walk the Line - $3.42M - $111M
10. Glory Road - $3.01M - $39M

Numbers this week might be lower than on a normal week due to the Superbowl eating into people's Sunday and reducing the amount of tickets sold.

In at number one is the horror/thriller remake When A Stranger Calls, with an impressive opening total of $22M, which will probably see the movie already into profit. Proof to the studios yet again that horror can sell at any time of the year (and that there's an enormous market for PG-13 horror/thrillers). Horror doesn't seem to go out of vogue like other genres.

Last weeks big opener, Big Momma's House 2 lost just over 50% of its business and walked into profit some time during the week. It might not end up with the $110M the first movie did but it'll certainly make a tidy profit and takes the sting out of Rebound flopping last year for Martin Lawrence.

Box office drop-wise, Nanny Mcphee did even better than Momma, losing just 31% of its box office from last week. The film is going down a storm in the US and it's only being shown on just over a 2,000 screens (Stranger is on nearly 3000 and Momma on 3,200+)

Bouncing all over the shop is Brokeback Mountain, which had started to descend the charts but jumps back up to number 4 from last weeks 6. Partly due to the continued good word of mouth but this week those extra 400+ screens and Oscars nominations have got more people through the doors.

Holding firm at five is CGI-adventure Hoodwinked while Underworld 2 begins to drop down the charts but perhaps not as quickly as expected. It's already beaten the domestic run of the first movie and will probably outperform it on DVD too (the place where the first Underworld became a big success)

Something New is the only other new entry into the charts. This inter-racial romance was seen as counter programming to the Superbowl Sunday coverage so there's a chance the final numbers will be slightly higher once they're in Monday.

Annapolis drops down the charts quickly and on a busier week would already be well out of the top ten. The same goes for Glory Road except that at least had a couple of strong weekends, two more than Annapolis certainly.

One re-entry, thanks in part to strong Oscar buzz and a few hundred extra screens being added is Walk The Line, the Johnny Cash biopic. A few studios have used this strategy this week - opening up smaller, Sscar nominated movies, in hope of catching the interested public who perhaps previously wouldn't have had chance to see the film or had not heard of it. Witness Capote adding 900+ screens and Good Night & Good Luck adding 824. Both movies jumped a number of places and took $2.5M & $1.5 respectively. Crash didn't fall into this category as the movie had already debuted on DVD.