Top 10 for April 7-9, 2006 Summary: Sunday estimates are in.
For the second week in a row 2006's first $100 million grossing blockbuster, Fox/Blue Sky Studios' Ice Age: The Meltdown, blew away the competition finishing the weekend with an estimated $34.5 million. That pushes the $80 million budgeted release to an incredible $116.4 million in just ten days, though the 49% drop in sales from its record-demolishing opening weekend was much larger than other comparable films in the computer-animated genre. 2003's Finding Nemo fell 33% to $46.5 million in its second weekend, while 2004's The Incredibles fell just 28.7% to $50.2 million in its sophomore frame. Even 2004's Shark Tale fell a slight 33% to $31.7 million, while 2002 predecessor Ice Age fell a cool 35% to $30 million in its second weekend, eventually finishing with $176.4 million domestically.
Still, thanks to its monster opening weekend, Meltdown is outperforming the original Ice Age by a substantial margin. In its first ten days 2002's Ice Age had grossed $87.3 million, compared to Meltdown's $116.4 million. Look for Meltdown to surpass Disney's Mulan ($120m), Fox/Bluesky's Robots ($128.2m), and Disney's Chicken Little ($135.3m) after Easter weekend, in which Fox is hoping to bring in even more families to the theaters. The film opened this weekend in Germany, as well as several other European nations, bolstering its international take to $55 million.
Opening in an ultrawide 3,274 theaters was Sony's baseball comedy The Benchwarmers, which finished in second with an estimated $20.5 million. Averaging a strong $6,261 per theater, the $33 million budgeted PG-13 release played well among the Under 21 demographic, despite being crushed by critics (just 12% recommendation rating from those polled by Rottentomatoes.com).
Antonio Banderas's high school dance drama Take the Lead took the third spot this weekend with an estimated $12.7 million, averaging $4,245 in 3,009 theaters. The New Line release struggled to shrug off mixed-to-disappointing reviews, and the film failed to capture the imagination of the teen demographic like in 2001's Save the Last Dance, which debuted with $27.5 million in 2001.
Universal's bank thriller Inside Man finished in fourth with an estimated $9.2 million, down 41% and pushing its three week cume to a strong $66 million.
MGM's crime dramedy Lucky Number Slevin rounded out the top five with an estimated $7.1 million debut, averaging a disappointing $3,593 in 1,984 theaters. Starring Josh Hartnett, Bruce Willis, and Morgan Freeman, the R-rated Weinstein company release (distributed by MGM), also experienced mixed reviews and had a hard time gaining any kind of traction with audiences this weekend.
The lone remaining debut this weekend was Fox Searchlight's critically trashed comedy Phat Girlz, which opened with an estimated $3.1 million in 1,056 theaters, averaging just $2,936. Budgeted at just $2.5 million and starring Mo'Nique, the film should see a quick exit out of theaters.
Continuing its phenomenal limited release run was Fox Searchlight's Thank You For Smoking, which expanded by 174 theaters to 300 total, earning an estimated $2.4 million and breaking into the top ten for the first time in its four week run. Searchlight will expand the film into over 1,000 theaters nationwide this Easter weekend.
In limited release, Sony Classics relationship drama Friends with Money, starring
Jennifer Aniston, debuted with a powerful estimated $637,000 from just 28 theaters, averaging $22,750 per theater.
Thanks to the continuing strong performance of Ice Age: The Meltdown, as well as a nice debut from The Benchwarmers, the top ten films grossed an estimated $100.8 million, up a very strong 33% from last year's comparable frame when Sahara was tops with $18.1 million.
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