Paramount and Icon Productions' R rated Vietnam war drama We Were Soldiers slipped one peg to second place in its second week, but held very well with a still powerful ESTIMATED $14.4 million (-29%) at 3,143 theaters (theater count unchanged; ($4,598 per theater). Its cume is approximately $40.8 million.
Written and directed by Randall Wallace, it stars Mel Gibson.
"We're very happy with the hold on Soldiers," Paramount Distribution president Wayne Lewellen said Sunday morning. "We took a bigger drop on Friday. It was off 37 percent on Friday, but Saturday was only off 24 percent. I'm estimating today off 26 percent, but it could be a little better than that or a little more.
"It's really strong. We know it's playing to an older audience and they just don't come out that strongly on Friday. We know the audience last week was a little older. 73 percent of the audience was over 25."
Noting that Time Machine is playing to a much younger audience than Soldiers, Lewellen said, "They work very well together."
Asked where Soldiers is heading, Lewellen noted, "If the picture holds at this level again this coming weekend, it could get into the $90-100 million range. That would be a multiple of five times the opening weekend ($20.2 million), which is really strong playability, which we do have on this picture."
New Line's R rated urban appeal buddy comedy All About the Benjamins opened in second place to a muscular ESTIMATED $10.13 million at 1,505 theaters ($6,728 per theater).
Directed by Kevin Bray, it stars Ice Cube and Mike Epps.
"Benjamins is right where we figured it would be," New Line Distribution president David Tuckerman said Sunday morning. "We're very pleased. We've had a long association with Ice Cube and he's delivered for us once again. His last picture for us was Next Friday and he's got The Friday After Next at Thanksgiving for us."