Top 10 for April 14-16, 2006 Summary: Final numbers are in.
Scary Movie 4 frightened off a couple of animated films from taking the top spot, including two-week champ
Ice Age: The Meltdown, as the Dimension films spoof comedy broke an Easter record with a
$40.2 million opening, surpassing the $30.1 million opening of 2002's Panic Room.
Launching in 3,602 theaters for a very strong $11,388 average, the $45 million budgeted fourth installment of
the popular spoof franchise posted not only the second largest opening of 2006 (behind Ice Age 2),
but also the second largest opening ever for the month of April (behind only Anger Management's $42.2 million in 2003).
Distributed by the fledgling Weinstein Company (under the Dimension banner, the wing of Miramax they were able to take with them in their split
with Disney), the film's debut surpassed both the first and second
Scary Movie, but finished below the $48.1 million opening of 2003's Scary Movie 3. That film went on to gross
$110 million domestically, so a run at $100 million is not out of the question for this latest David Zucker helmed comedy.
Though blockbuster Ice Age: The Meltdown relinquished its top spot at the box office, it was able to fight off its direct competitor in the
family market, Disney's The Wild, finishing in second with $20 million. Slipping a decent 41% over the
Easter weekend, the $80 million budgeted computer-animated comedy, from Fox's Blue Sky Studio, brought its three week cumulative
to an incredible $147.1 million domestically. It has now surpassed Disney's Chicken Little ($135m), and Fox's own Robots
($128.2m), and should have no trouble passing the original Ice Age's $176.3 million domestic take within the next few weeks.
Internationally, the film has been on an even bigger tear, posting opening weekend records across Europe and South America for a total
of $169 million overseas, bringing its worldwide take to an estimated $316.6 million. At its current pace, Meltdown will likely
finish with $190-200 million domestically, and over $500 million worldwide, which would make it one of the top ten highest grossing computer
animated films ever.
Sony's low-brow comedy The Benchwarmers fell its requisite 50% to $9.9 million in third, bringing its ten day
take to $35.9 million. Look for the $33 million budgeted film to finish with $50-55 million domestically.
The stinker for the weekend went to Disney's "haven't I seen this movie before" computer-animated family film The Wild, which
debuted well below industry projections with $9.68 million, averaging a disappointing $3,349 in 2,854 theaters.
Carrying a hefty budget of $80 million (sadly the same as Ice Age 2), the poorly reviewed release failed to shrug off the
fact that its storyline shared too many distinct similarities to last year's DreamWorks hit Madagascar ($47.2m debut, $193.5m total),
as well a very dated overall look. The film was actually in production before Madagascar but was not created inside the Disney Animation
studio, instead produced by Toronto-based C.O.R.E. Digital and distributed by Disney.
Though it's still too early to tell whether this is a bad omen for the remaining 12 animated films set to be released in 2006, it is
a poor start for Disney, which had hoped to make a quick profit off this release before its Pixar-created Cars opens in June.
Rounding out the top five was New Line's Take the Lead with an estimated $6.7 million, bringing its ten day take to
$22.5 million. Gaining ground was FoxSearchlight's Thank You for Smoking, which climbed two spots to No. 8 with an
estimated $4.4 million, up 92% (thanks to the addition of 716 theaters) from a week ago, bringing its five week cume to $11.5 million.
In limited release, Lions Gate's spanish language drama La Mujer de mi Hermano opened in 205 theaters for an estimated
$1 million, while Miramax's Kinky Boots took in an estimated $81,000 from nine theaters for a strong $9,011 average.
April continues to be a strong month, as the top ten films grossed an estimated $107.4 million, up 24% from last year's comparable
Easter weekend frame when MGM's The Amityville Horror was tops with a $23.5 million debut.
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