Audiences celebrated this Martin Luther King weekend by watching the sports drama Coach Carter starring Samuel L. Jackson. Coach Carter marks the movie debut of popular R&B singer Ashanti. The film grossed an uplifting $29.2M for the four day holiday weekend, putting an end to Meet the Fockers three week reign. This is a personal best for the versatile Jackson in movies where he receives top billing. His previous best was 2000’s Shaft, which opened with $21M. Coach Carter is the second best MLK weekend opener ever behind Along Came Polly’s $32.5M and ahead of Save the Last Dance’s $27.5M.
Meet the Fockers dropped to second place with a still great $22.5M. Its cum now stands at an unbelievable $234.3M after just four weeks of release, easily outgrossing its predecessor’s $166M. This is Ben Stiller’s highest grossing film ever.
Racing Stripes raced to a solid third place finish with $18.9M. This is Frankie Muniz’s best debut thus far in his early movie career, slightly ahead of 2003’s Agent Cody Banks.
In Good Company, starring Dennis Quaid and Scarlett Johansson, opened wide this past weekend and placed fourth. The best reviewed of this weekend’s openers with a Tomatometer of 83%, it grossed a respectable $16.6M.
The last of this past weekend’s debuts and easily the worst reviewed of the bunch with a Tomatometer of a very moldy 7%, Elektra grossed a mediocre $14.8M.
Last weekend’s surprise hit White Noise dropped to sixth place with an estimated $13.8M. Its total thus far is a scary $42.9M. It’s the first sleeper hit of 2005 and Michael Keaton‘s best performing movie at the box office since 1992’s Batman Returns.
Rounding out the rest of the top 10 are The Aviator with $6.4M (cum $51.5M), Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events with $5.3M (cum $112.4M), The Phantom of the Opera with $4.6M (cum $27.5M), and Fat Albert with $3.8M (cum $45.6M).
Click here to view the detailed box office chart (to be updated later today).
