Despite fairly atrocious reviews across the board, Marvel comic adaptation "Fantastic Four" not only snagged the number #1 box office spot — but did so with some truly impressive numbers. The lighthearted action flick snagged an estimated $56 million from 3,600 theaters, effectively surpassing even the most optimistic of Fox-based predictions. "When you have a weekend like this, you’ve got to question, what is the relevance of reviewers to viewers at large," says Fox production head Hutch Parker.
In second place was Steven Spielberg‘s sci-fi thriller "War of the Worlds," which grabbed an extra $31.3 million in its second weekend. In third place with a tally of $10.2 million is the still-popular "Batman Begins," which has made a total of $172.1m so far.
Debuting in fourth place was the Jennifer Connelly horror-drama "Dark Water," which made $10.1 in its first three days. Rounding out the top 5 was the bona-fide smash hit "Mr. and Mrs. Smith," which added another $7.8 million to its $159m piggy bank.
The same pundits who predicted that "Fantastic Four" would falter out of the gate are now rather confident that the movie will take a huge percentage drop next weekend, especially with "Wedding Crashers" and "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" set to debut.
As always, you can visit the Rotten Tomatoes box office page for a closer look at the weekend numbers.
