U.S Box Office Report - 4th - 6th May 2007

1. Spider-Man 3 - $148M - $148M
2. Disturbia - $5.7M - $59.8M
3. Fracture - $3.4M - $26.4M
4. The Invisible - $3.1M - $12.3M
5. Next - $2.7M - $11.8M
6. Lucky You - $2.5M - $2.5M
7. Meet the Robinsons - $2.48M - $91.7M
8. Blades of Glory - $2.3M - $111.6M
9. Hot Fuzz - $2M - $16.1M
10. Vacancy - $1.5M - $3.4M

The biggest no-brainer of the year - Spiderman 3 takes the top spot with ease, smashing the previous opening record set by Dead Man's Chest by a huge $12M! (that $12M alone is more than Disturbia took last weekend). Everyone was cautious going into the weekend knowing that Spiderman 3 would open big but whether it would smash records wasn't clear with some analysts expecting a huge opening day (more on that in a minute) and then lower Saturday & Sunday totals. One other additional factor were reviews (for a movie like this they don't mean much, people were going to see Spiderman 3 come hell or high water) which were quite disappointing especially when held up against the previous movies.

After such a huge opening weekend any potential worries can be put firmly to one side - Spiderman 3 is the first official blockbuster of the summer and may go onto become the biggest movie of the year. It should also become the fastest movie to make $200M (the record currently sits at 8 days) while overseas numbers have propelled the film to a global total (inc. US takings) of nearly $375M.

The movie had opened in some territories earlier in the week and had smashed a number of single day records - it repeated that feat this weekend in the US. The previous record was set by Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest last July with $55M - Spiderman 3 shatters that by just over $4M, giving it a single day total of around $59M. It'll be interesting to see if Pirates of the Caribbean 3: At Worlds End smashes Spiderman's record in three weeks time. Making a debut on 4,252 locations it beats the location record held by Shrek 2 by 29 (Spiderman 2 sits just behind Shrek 2 with a location count of 4,166) giving it the biggest debut by a movie in cinematic history.

So that leaves nine movies to fight over the few people who didn't go and see Spiderman 3 this weekend. You've only to glance down the remaining figures to see that Spiderman 3 decimated the rest of the market. With some of the totals so close it won't be a surprise to see a few of the films swap places once final numbers are released. Performing the best of bad bunch (and still not good at that) is the three time box office winner Disturbia. A few poor weekends of releases offered next to no competition to the movie and that's helped propel its total to nearly $60M. While next weekend offers four new releases, none of them offer a threat to Spiderman 3 and Disturbia itself should be able to see off at least a couple of them.

Missing person thriller The Invisible loses more than 50% of its box office from last weekend and will leave the chart quickly as the summer releases start filling up the box office. The same could be said of Fracture, whose $25M+ total might be better than that of the Invisible but it's had a week head start and certainly isn't anything to write home about. The Nic Cage movie Next drops a couple of places and loses over 60% of its box office from last weekend. A disaster for all concerned - this will have to hit DVD fast to try and salvage any semblance of profit

Seen by some as alternate programming and by others as the sacrificial lamb, Lucky You is our only other new entry this weekend. The long delayed Drew Barrymore/Eric Bana romantic drama failed on almost every level and will quickly see its location total slashed. What might have worked this weekend as better alternate programming was an earlier Drew Barrymore film - Music & Lyrics could have fared a lot better against Spiderman 3 in the same way Notting Hill did against Star Wars Episode 1 all those years ago. Lucky You didn't attract the strong female demographic or anyone after a decent alternative.

Meet The Robinsons is still the only kid-friendly movie in the charts and it edges ever closer to that $100M mark. That lack of competition will only last another weekend though as Shrek The Third debuts a weekend later.

In its sixth weekend Blade of Glory crosses the $110M mark and should just about manage $125M before the end of its domestic run. It's been a damn good 12 months for Will Ferrel - a smash hit with Talledega Nights and Blades of Glory and critical success with Stranger Than Fiction.

With only 1200 locations to its name, Hot Fuzz has been a minor success thanks to some strong word of mouth (and loud support from a number of websites) but like everything this weekend it has taken a bit of hit thanks to the webslinger. Hot Fuzz made almost $50M before its US release and should be sitting on a global total (inc US takings) of over $65M by the end of play on Sunday. The low budget film should return a healthy profit as the trio of Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg & Nick Frost begin brainstorming for the third part of their proposed trilogy which started with Shaun of the Dead.

Rounding out the top ten is comedy Are We There Yet? which should end its run with $50M.

(NOTE: Numbers are yet to be issued for Vacancy - it may replace Are We Done yet when they are finally released)

No one really wants to challenge Spiderman 3 in its second weekend which is why we get four smaller releases next weekend (none of them are at more than 2,400 locations) -