HOLLYWOOD - The Scorpion King kept its box office crown despite dropping 51 percent to $17.6 million.Changing Lanes held fast in second place with $9 million. Life Or Something Like It opened third to a not so lively $6.7 million. Jason X scared up $6.5 million to open fourth. Murder by Numbers claimed fifth place with $6.3 million.
With only King really driving the marketplace, key films -- those grossing $500,000 or more -- totaled $76.4 million, up nearly 22 percent from last year's $62.6 million. Business fell by about 22 percent from the previous weekend's $98.1 million.
Looking ahead, distribution executives are anticipating that Columbia's kickoff of Spider-Man this Friday (May 3) will generate huge opening weekend grosses. Most insiders expect an opening of at least $70 million and some are speculating about $80 million in ticket sales for the film's first three days.
Between the current success of Scorpion King, the anticipated strength of Spider-Man and the expected blockbuster launch May 16 of 20th Century Fox and Lucasfilm's Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones, the pre-summer should provide Hollywood with a sizzling start to the traditional summer season.
THE TOP TEN
Universal's PG-13 rated adventure spinoff The Scorpion King in association with World Wrestling Federation Entertainment and Alphaville was number one again in its second week, still flexing its box office muscles with an ESTIMATED $17.57 million (-51%) at 3,449 theaters (+ 5 theaters; $5,095 per theater). Its cume is approximately $60.8 million, heading for $100 million in domestic theaters.
Scorpion's average per theater was the highest for any film playing in wide release this weekend.
"To have $60 million in 10 days is something to celebrate," Universal distribution president Nikki Rocco said Sunday morning.
"I think the (marketing) strategy was right. The opening date was right. And now we'll probably coast, hopefully, to $100 million."
What Universal has established, Rocco added, "is that you can take a film that has high visibility and open it any time of the year and have excellent results. Scorpion King is such a huge success for our studio. It's going to be profitable. We launched a new charismatic star (The Rock). We launched a new release date (mid-April) for this type of event film. It was the launch of a new franchise and it could be done off-season. If this is any indication, the industry is in for a gangbuster summer. There are a lot of high profile films and that's good for the business."