HOLLYWOOD - The second Men in Black finished first for the second time in its second weekend with $25 million and a $133.3 million cume.Opening at half the theaters that MIBII has, Road to Perdition was second with a first-class $22.1 million.
Reign of Fire opened third with a fiery $16 million. Halloween: Resurrection kicked off fourth with a sharp $12.3 million. Mr. Deeds inherited fifth place, holding well with $11 million.
The weekend's other wide opening, MGM's The Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course bit off less than it hoped to chew, finishing sixth with $10 million.
Ticket sales were up nearly 19 percent from last year. Key films -- those grossing $500,000 or more -- took in $138.5 million versus last year's $116.8 million.
THE TOP TEN
Columbia's PG-13 rated blockbuster sequel Men in Black II topped the chart again in its second week with a still impressive ESTIMATED $25.0 million (-52%) at 3,611 theaters (+54 theaters; $6,923 per theater). Its cume after 12 days is approximately $133.3 million.
Directed by Barry Sonnenfeld, it stars Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith.
"We certainly hope we're in position to make it to $200 million," Sony Pictures Entertainment worldwide marketing & distribution president Jeff Blake said Sunday morning. "That would make everyone very happy and (generate) plenty of profits for everybody."
The film's second weekend drop of 52 percent was well below predictions some insiders were making late last week that it would fall 60 percent or more. "This shows this (film) is really being taken as it was meant to be, which is (as) a terrifically entertaining summer picture," Blake said. "It's basically for everybody and I think that adds up. Any time anybody is this high profile and as wide as we are and adding up as quickly as we are, I guess there's some question of how long it can last. But, in the meantime, it certainly is adding up pretty quickly."
With MIBII and Mr. Deeds both performing well, Sony Pictures Entertainment saw its domestic theatrical gross for the year soar past the $1 billion mark this week. "We haven't added it up yet, but I know we're probably around $1.03 billion or something like that at this point in time," Blake noted. "I believe we passed ($1 billion) last Friday." The studio is hoping and planning to break the record it set in 1997 with its gross for that year of $1.27 billion. It's presently running about two months ahead of where it was in '97.
Sony's next release, Stuart Little 2, arrives Friday (July 19) at 3,000 or more theaters. The first Stuart Little opened to $15 million the weekend of Dec. 17-19, 1999 and went on to gross $140 million in domestic theaters.