OTHER OPENINGS
This weekend also saw the arrival of Miramax's PG rated comedy The Importance of Being Earnest to an encouraging ESTIMATED $0.53 million at 38 theaters ($13,809 per theater). (Miramax estimated its three-day gross at $0.37 million.)
Directed by Oliver Parker, it stars Rupert Everett, Colin Firth, Frances O'Connor, Reese Witherspoon, Judi Dench and Tom Wilkinson.
United Artists' R rated drama CQ, released through MGM Distribution Co., arrived to a hopeful ESTIMATED $51,000 at 7 theaters in New York and Los Angeles ($7,286 per theater). (MGM estimated its three-day gross at $40,000.)
Written and directed by Roman Coppola, it stars Jeremy Davies and Angela Lindvall.
SNEAK PREVIEWS
This weekend saw no national sneak previews.
EXPANSIONS
On the expansion front this weekend there was no significant activity to report.
WEEKEND COMPARISONS
Key films--those grossing more than $500,000 -- took in approximately $200.16 million for the four-day holiday
weekend, up about 12.13 percent from last year when they totaled $178.48 million for four days.
Key films for this four-day holiday weekend cannot be compared to the previous weekend of this year, which was a normal three-day weekend.
Last year, Buena Vista/Touchstone's opening week of Pearl Harbor was first with $75.18 million for four days at 3,214 theaters ($23,391 per theater); and DreamWorks' second week of Shrek was second with $55.22 million for four days at 3,623 theaters ($15,240 per theater). The top two films one year ago grossed $130.4 million. This year, the top two films grossed an ESTIMATED $99.5 million.