U.S Box Office Report - 6th - 8th October 2006

1. The Departed - $27.0M - $27.0M
2. Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning - $19.1M - $19.1M
3. Open Season - $16.0M - $44.1M
4. Employee of the Month - $11.8M - $11.8M
5. The Guardian - $9.6M - $32.4M
6. jackass number two - $6.4M - $62.7M
7. School for Scoundrels - $3.4M - $14.0M
8. Gridiron Gang - $2.3M - $36.6M
9. Jet Li's Fearless - $2.2M - $21.7M
10. The Illusionist - $1.8M - $34.1M

The Departed takes the top spot this weekend. A strong cast and some stellar reviews allowed the movie to become Scorsese's biggest ever opening movie (his previous best was for Cape Fear). The R rating and extended running time appear to have not harmed the movie in any way and given some of the awful releases the public have faced in the last month, they've jumped at the chance to see a bit of quality film-making. Next week doesn't hold a great deal of competition and word of mouth should give it a strong taking during the week.

Horror prequel Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning also has a pretty decent weekend though not as strong as the remake of the original had 3 years ago when it opened to a huge $28M. Still, the movie was made relatively cheaply and will have recouped the majority of its production budget with that weekend total. Like many horror movies, expect this one to drop sharply next weekend and find a strong market on DVD.

Open Season loses just 32% of its business from last weekend and benefits from being the only kid friendly-kid orientated movie in the top ten. Sadly its large production budget means it'll need to keep on taking the money to get anywhere near profit. This was Sony's first foray into the CGI cartoon market and with a good opening weekend and acceptable second one, they'll certainly be more happy than Warner Bros were with The Ant Bully.

Comedy Employee of the Month performs a little better than estimates had pegged it. The Dane Cook comedy also starring Jessica Simpsons appealed to the same market who took 'Accepted' into a quick profit a month or so ago. Quality-wise, it looks a lot like a movie that should have either gone straight to DVD or had its release put into the dumping ground of September.

The Guardian loses a not too bad 46% from last weekend and is Kevin Costner's most successful movie in many years. The movie appears to be playing to the over 30s market while picking up a few teenage fans of co-star Ashton Kutchner.

Jackass 2 crosses the $60M mark in only its third weekend and currently sits just $2M behind the total domestic gross of the first movie. The film could easily end up with over $75M before the end of its theatrical run from a budget of just $11.5M.

School For Scoundrels, which floundered in its opening release performs just as poorly in its second. It'll be written off quickly as a comedy that didn't work, didn't find its market or was just released at the wrong time. Similarly, Gridiron Gang, while performing much better than Scoundrels during its run, may also have benefited from being released a little earlier in the year - ahead of Invincible and the start of the American Football season.

Rounding out the top ten are martial arts epic Fearless and The Illusionist. Both movies are enjoying their last weekend on the charts, with The Illusionist being the stronger of the two. In a less crowded market both movies could have performed even better. Sadly, as this year has shown numerous times, those quiet weekends are a rare commodity.