U.S Box Office Report - 7th - 9th April 2006

1. Ice Age 2 - $34.5M - $116.4M
2. The Benchwarmers - $20.5M - $20.5M
3. Take the Lead - $12.7M - $12.7M
4. Inside Man - $9.1M - $66M
5. Lucky Number Slevin - $7.1M - $7.1M
6. Failure to Launch - $4.1M - $79M
7. ATL - $3.7M - $17.2M
8. V for Vendetta - $3.3M - $62.2M
9. Phat Girlz -  $3.1M - $3.1M
10. Thank You for Smoking -  $2.4M - $6.2M

Ice Age 2 remains at the top of the box office, which was expected by analysts. Losing just 49% of business from last week, the movie became the first this year to bust the $100M barrier. It faced next to no major competition this weekend and reaped the benefits. It should easily see $150M before the end of its domestic run.

Straight in at 2 is the little league baseball comedy The Benchwarmers. People were obviously after a more teen/adult orientated gross-out comedy than Ice Age 2 offered as the movie took a massive amount. Made quite cheaply the movie should lose more than 50% box office next weekend but will comfortably slide into profit.

The 2nd new entry of the week is the Dangerous Minds with dancing, Take The Lead. Starring Antonio Banderas as dance instructor who takes kids from the wrong side of the track and teaches them to be something, through ballroom dancing. Another movie that probably performed better than expected (and similar to last weekends ATL) with a specific market in mind. Possibly predictable cinema but that's nothing to be scoffed at with those sort of takings.

I think, I'll need to check later, but this could be the first weekend this year that also sees three movies taking more than $10M.

Not going out without a fight is Inside Man, which continues to perform very well. Just a few hundred thousand short of being the fourth film in the top ten to make $10M in one weekend. Easily Spike Lee's most successful film in terms of box office takings. With a documentary on Hurricane Katrina coming next from Spike, there's no chance he'll abandon his roots to make another genre picture.

The third new entry was Lucky Number Slevin which performed strong on a 1000 screens less than Inside Man. Similar to Running Scared, the movie has opened elsewhere in the world before its native market. A strong cast possibly attracted people to the movie, the title probably working against it.

Performing far less well this week was Failure To Launch. But it's worth remembering that the movie is now in its 5th week of release and eased into domestic profit a couple of weeks ago. More than a few movies wish they were in that position.

Losing a huge 67% of its box office from last weekend was roller skating dance movie ATL. The movie was made cheaply for a pretty specific market and will see a quick DVD release to cash in on its initial success. It certainly saw off Basic Instinct 2 last weekend!

V For Vendetta is just about hanging in there, taking nearly four weeks to cover it's production budget. Many had this doing so much better. Could this finish any chance of a Watchman adaptation?

Finally, the last new entry into the top ten this week was Phat Girlz. A tale of an overweight fashion designer who struggles to find love & acceptance. Released quietly on just a 1000 screens, the movie is expected to find its market on DVD.

Rounding out the top ten is satire Thankyou For Smoking, which performed amazingly well. Released in a limited capacity over the past four weeks, it saw another 174 screens added to bring its total up to just 300 screens. The movie then went on to take $3.1M, giving it the second highest screen/taking ratio of any movie in the top ten save for Ice Age 2. Bear in mind that Ice Age 2 is on 3,600 screens more.

It appears that Basic Instinct 2 performed so badly this weekend that number haven't even been issued, while Slither dropped 5 places.