John Singleton‘s action drama "Four Brothers" opened in 2,500 theaters to a better-than-expected $20.7 million in its first weekend, handily beating a trio of other newcomers. One of its main competitors was the Kate Hudson bayou thriller "The Skeleton Key," which unlocked nearly $15.8 million (from about 2,800 theaters) in a comparatively slow weekend at the box office.
Still hanging around in third place was WB’s "The Dukes of Hazzard," which added another $13m to its $57.5 total gross. Fourth place went to the powerful "Wedding Crashers," which grossed just over $12 million, adding to its total gross just over $164 million(!) Rounding out the top five was "Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo," which made $9.4 million in just over 3,100 theaters.
Miramax’s long-delayed "The Great Raid" just managed to crack the top ten by grossing about $3.3 million from nearly 820 theaters.
In milestone news, Christopher Nolan‘s "Batman Begins" became only the third movie this year to gross over $200 million, after "Star Wars Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith" and "War of the Worlds."
Next week sees the arrival of another cinematic foursome: the bike-racing flick "Supercross" opens on Wednesday, while Steve Carell in "The 40 Year-Old Virgin," Wes Craven‘s airplane thriller "Red Eye," and Disney’s animated adventure "Valiant" will wait until next Friday.
As always, please stop by the Rotten Tomatoes Box Office Page for a closer look at the weekend stats.
