U.S Box Office Report - 5th - 7th May 2006

1. Mission: Impossible III - $48.0M - $48.0M
2. RV - $11.1M - $31M
3. An American Haunting $6.3M - $6.3M
4. Stick It - $5.5M - $17.9M
5. United 93 - $5.2M - $20M
6. Ice Age: The Meltdown - $4M - $183.2M
7. Silent Hill - $3.9M - $40.8M
8. Scary Movie 4 - $3.7M - $83.7M
9. Hoot - $3.4M - $3.4M
10. Akeelah and the Bee - $3.4M - $10.6M

Summer opens with a bang, perhaps not as loud as hoped though. MI3 takes the top spot but it's return of $48M is bound to be a disappointment in some quarters. Given the huge amount of screens the movie is being shown on (over 4000), the massive hype & advertising, you can bet that Paramount would have preferred something north of $50M. The movie falls in the middle of the franchise for opening weekend tally - MI took $45M and MI2 took $57M. The movie opens at 16th in the overall May openings of all time (Just behind Van Helsing with $51M). The movie has taken a further $70M from 9,500 locations in the rest of the world, put like that an opening worldwide weekend of $120M isn't too bad.

While hardly a failure, analysts might start to wonder if the public's apathy to Cruise & his antics is finally starting to affect his day job.

RV loses just 32% of box office from last weekend, certainly no disappointment in those terms. It'll probably end up its domestic run around $50M. Not a staggering comeback for Williams & Sonnenfeld but certainly no failure.

The second new entry this week comes in the shape of An American Haunting, which was produced and distributed independently. Made for just $14M and released by fledging company "Free", the movie had the second best screen to takings ratio of the top ten. At any other time of year this may have taken nearer the $10M mark (see such fare as Exorcism of Emily Rose) but Free must be pleased with that opening.

New entries from last week, Stick It & United 93 both lose around half of their takings. United 93 has recouped its production budget, and while no figures are available for Stick It, it is fair to say that the movie will end its run having made back it's costs too. It appears that the public's curiosity with 9/11 may have been confined to a smaller market than was first assumed.

Ice Age 2 is now in its sixth weekend and edging ever closer to that $200M mark. It might take a few weeks to reach it though as it loses its screen tally to newer movies.

Silent Hill crosses the $40M mark as Scary Movie 4 crosses the $80M level. SM4 hasn't performed as well as previous releases but again, it's certainly no flop and won't signal the end of the franchise just yet. Silent Hill will enter production profit with world wide takings added and will find a strong DVD market waiting for it.

The final new entry is the family film Hoot, which opened on almost twice as many screens as An American Haunting but certainly didn't find the same success waiting for it. Rounding out the top ten this week is Akeelah & The Bee which took roughly the same amount as Hoot despite being on 1000 screens less.