For the first time in several years, a wide release has jumped into the #1 box office spot after spending two weeks among the top five, and that movie is "Wedding Crashers."
The very popular Owen Wilson / Vince Vaughn raunchy-guy rom-com pulled in just over $20 million in its third weekend, giving it the #1 spot by a healthy margin. Its grand total so far is $116 million, and the flick looks to end up as one of this year’s biggest surprise hits. (Which means we’ll probably be reporting on "Revenge of the Wedding Crashers" a few summers from now!)
Also quite joyously buoyant is Tim Burton‘s "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," which slipped to second place with a weekend tally of $16.3 million and a grand total (so far) of $148m.
The rest of the top five field was populated by newcomers: Disney’s "Sky High" netted nearly $14.6m in 2,900 theaters; Sony’s "Stealth" limped onto the scene with $13.5m in nearly 3,500 theaters; and WB’s rom-com "Must Love Dogs" took a walk with $13m in 2,500 theaters.
Debuting resoundingly well in only four theaters was the comedic documentary "The Aristocrats," which hauled in $260,000 — or $65,000 per screen. (Compare that to "Crashers" $6,700 per screen or "Charlie"s $4,300!)
The news continues to be pretty darn bleak for DreamWorks’ "The Island," which dropped 55% from its (rather unimpressive) opening weekend, while Fox’s "Fantastic Four" continues to add a few extra pennies to its grand total of $136m.
There’s only one wide release next Friday, WB’s "The Dukes of Hazzard," so you can expect a lot of the same titles to pop up in the top 5 next weekend. (The indie hit "March of the Penguins" also expands to an additional 1,500 screens next Friday, so please do consider it an alternative choice if you’re a bit weary of the Crashes, the Wars, the Chocolate, and the Fantastic.)
As always, you can take a closer look at the weekly numbers right here at the RT box office page.
