HOLLYWOOD - Sometimes media hype works.Seems moviegoers flocked to see some sizzling on-screen chemistry between tabloid-hounded megastars Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt this weekend. Their dark comedy Mr. & Mrs. Smith--about a married couple who find out they are highly trained assassins--opened on top of the heap with a whopping $51 million.
"I think [Mr. & Mrs. Smith] was a mixture of movie and hype," Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Exhibitor Relations told The Associated Press. "The combined interest in the movie itself and the personal lives of these two stars conspired to create a pretty strong opening weekend."
"We will see how much was tabloid fodder versus how it plays to audiences," added Bruce Snyder, head of distribution for 20th Century Fox. "If it hangs in there, it's a good movie with a great-looking cast that really delivers. If it disappears, then it was a lot of hype."
Other newcomers included Robert Rodriguez's fanciful The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl, which came in fifth with $12.5 million and The Honeymooners, starring Cedric the Entertainer and Mike Epps, which came in seventh with a meager $5.8 million.
This weekend, the Top 12 films grossed an estimated $138 million, up 8.79 percent from last weekend's $126.9 million take but down 10.04 percent from this time last year's draw of $153.4 million.
The Top Three films at the box office this time last year were: Warner Bros. PG-13 rated Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, which held onto the No. 1 spot in its second week with $34.9 million in 3,855 theaters, averaging $9,056 per theater; Universal's PG-13 rated The Chronicles of Riddick, which opened in second place with $24.4 million in 2,757 theaters, averaging $8,810 per theater; and DreamWorks' PG-rated Shrek 2, which dropped to third place in its fourth week with $23.3 million in 3,843 theaters, averaging $6,067 per theater.
(This week's box office Top 10 below...)
BOX OFFICE TOP 10, ESTIMATES:
(Source: Exhibitor Relations, Inc.)
No. 1: Mr. & Mrs. Smith (20th Century Fox, PG-13)
• Gross: $51 million
• Weeks opened: NEW!
• Theaters: 3,424
• Per-theater average: $14,909
No. 2: Madagascar (DreamWorks, PG)
• Gross: $17.1 million (-39%)
• Weeks opened: 3
• Theaters: 3,929 (-213)
• Per-theater average: $4,352
• Cume to date: $128.4 million
No. 3: Star Wars: Episode III-Revenge of the Sith (20th Century Fox, PG-13)
• Gross: $14.8 million (-41%)
• Weeks opened: 4
• Theaters: 3,322 (-328)
• Per-theater average: $4,470
• Cume to date: $332.1 million
No. 4: The Longest Yard (Paramount Pictures, PG-13)
• Gross: $13.5 million (-48%)
• Weeks opened: 3
• Theaters: 3,654 (+20)
• Per-theater average: $3,695
• Cume to date: $118.1 million
No. 5: The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl in 3-D (Miramax, PG)
• Gross: $12.5 million
• Weeks opened: NEW!
• Theaters: 2,655
• Per-theater average: $4,708
No. 6: Cinderella Man (Universal, PG-13)
• Gross: $9.5 million (-48%)
• Weeks opened: 2
• Theaters: 2,820
• Per-theater average: $3,369
No. 7: The Honeymooners (Paramount Pictures, PG-13)
• Gross: $5.8 million
• Weeks opened: NEW!
• Theaters: 1,912
• Per-theater average: $3,033
No. 8: The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (Warner Bros., PG)
• Gross: $5.6 million (-42%)
• Weeks opened: 2
• Theaters: 2,583
• Per-theater average: $2,199
• Cume to date: $23.7 million
No. 9: Monster-in-Law (New Line Cinema, PG-13)
• Gross: $2.6 million (-56%)
• Weeks opened: 5
• Theaters: 1,949 (-1,076)
• Per-theater average: $1,347
• Cume to date: $67.4 million
No. 10: Crash (Lions Gate, R)
• Gross: $1.9 million (-42%)
• Weeks opened: 6
• Theaters: 908 (-411)
• Per-theater average: $2,093
• Cume to date: $44.3 million
OTHER OPENINGS
High Tension (Lions Gate, R)
• Gross: $1.7 million
• Weeks opened: NEW!
• Theaters: 1,323
• Per-theater average: $1,323
Howl's Moving Castle (Buena Vista, PG)
• Gross: $401,000
• Weeks opened: NEW!
• Theaters: 36
• Per-theater average: $11,139