Tom Cruise and his IMF spy pals held onto the number one spot on Friday as Mission: Impossible III grossed an estimated $7.6M to begin its second weekend at number one.
The Paramount release dropped 55% from its opening day last Friday which was understandable given that it was an action sequel. Some of Cruise’s biggest box office hits like War of the Worlds and the previous Mission films all debuted mid-week over holiday frames so comparing Friday-to-Friday declines would be unfair. However, action films opening on the first weekend of May over the last three years all tumbled by more than 60% on their second Fridays. Over the Friday-to-Sunday period, MI3 is on course to take in $23-25M.
Warner Bros. docked in second place on Friday with its cruise ship disaster flick Poseidon which opened to an estimated $7.2M in its first day of release. The debut was almost identical to the $7.3M opening day gross of last year’s big-budget, early summer action film Kingdom of Heaven which went on to collect $19.6M during its opening frame. Poseidon looks to finish the weekend in second place with $19-22M.
Lindsay Lohan‘s new comedy Just My Luck premiered with an estimated $2M on Friday in its first day in theaters. Fellow freshman Goal! The Dream Begins debuted to an estimated $600,000 on Friday. Weekend tallies should reach $5-6M for Fox’s Luck and $2-3M for Buena Vista’s Goal!
Among holdovers, Friday-to-Friday declines were 21% for RV, 39% for An American Haunting, and 33% for United 93.
The top ten films grossed an estimated $24.4M on Friday which was down 16% from a year ago when Monster-in-Law bowed to a Friday gross of $8M on its way to a $23.1M weekend debut.
Author: Gitesh Pandya, BoxOfficeGuru.com
