HOLLYWOOD - Sharks chewed up the box office competition once again.DreamWorks' CGI-animated fish fry Shark Tale took the box office title for the second week in a row with $31.7 million, while newcomer Friday Night Lights, a high school football drama starring Billy Bob Thornton, debuted in second place with $20.5 million.
"You can really attribute the gross on Friday Night Lights to the strong reviews," Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Exhibitor Relations told The Associated Press Sunday. "It's a football movie and has appeal to a lot of high schoolers at this time of year, but much of the audience for a movie like that decides to see a movie based on reviews."
The laffer Taxi, starring Queen Latifah and Jimmy Fallon, took a disappointing fourth place with $12 million, even though it opened in limited theaters Wednesday, while the Hilary Duff fluff Raise Your Voice premiered in sixth position with $4.6 million.
Expanding to wider release after two weeks in a limited run, The Motorcycle Diaries, which chronicles the road trip taken by the young Ernesto "Che" Guevara (Gael Garcia Bernal) and a pal across South America, broke into the Top 10, grossing $1.4 million for ninth place and earning this week's largest per screen average of $8,453 per theater.
This weekend, the Top 12 films grossed an estimated $98.5 million, down 3.14 percent from last weekend's $101.7 million take but up less than 1 percent from last year's draw of $97.9 million.
The top three films at the box office this time last year were: Miramax's R-rated Kill Bill Vol. 1 which debuted at No. 1 with 22 million in 3,102 theaters, averaging $7,121 per theater; Paramount's PG-13 School of Rock which came in second in its second week with $15.4 million in 2,929 theaters, averaging $5,288 per theater; and MGM's PG-rated Good Boy! which opened in third place with $13.1 million in 3,225 theaters, averaging $4,064 per theater.
BOX OFFICE TOP 10, ESTIMATES:
(Source: Exhibitor Relations, Inc.)
No. 1: Shark Tale (DreamWorks, PG)
• Gross: $31.7 million (-33%)
• Weeks opened: 2
• Theaters: 4,070 (+54)
• Per-theater average: $7,789
• Cume to date: $87.7 million
No. 2: Friday Night Lights (Universal, PG-13)
• Gross: $20.5 million
• Weeks opened: NEW!
• Theaters: 2,667
• Per-theater average: $7,711
No. 3: Ladder 49 (Buena Vista, PG-13)
• Gross: $13.2 million (-40%)
• Weeks opened: 2
• Theaters: 3,261 (+1)
• Per-theater average: $4,069
• Cume to date: $41.1 million
No. 4: Taxi (20th Century Fox, PG-13)
• Gross: $12 million (opened Wednesday)
• Weeks opened: NEW!
• Theaters: 3,001
• Per-theater average: $4, 015
• Cume to date: $12.6 million
No. 5: The Forgotten (Sony, PG-13)
• Gross: $7.5 million (-43%)
• Weeks opened: 3
• Theaters: 2,981 (-163)
• Per-theater average: $2,516
• Cume to date: $48.6 million
No. 6: Raise Your Voice (New Line Cinema, PG)
• Gross: $4.6 million
• Weeks opened: NEW!
• Theaters: 2,521
• Per-theater average: $1,825
No. 7: Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (Paramount, PG)
• Gross: $2.2 million (-31%)
• Weeks opened: 4
• Theaters: 1,743 (-978)
• Per-theater average: $1,305
• Cume to date: $33.8 million
No. 8: Shaun of the Dead (Focus Features, PG-13)
• Gross: $1.5 million (-36%)
• Weeks opened: 3
• Theaters: 675 (+30)
• Per-theater average: $2,360
No. 9: The Motorcycle Diaries (Focus Features, R)
• Gross: $1.4 million (+30%)
• Weeks opened: 3
• Theaters: 167 (+100, expanded)
• Per-theater average: $8,453
• Cume to date: $3.1 million
No. 10: Resident Evil: Apocalypse (Screen Gems, R)
• Gross: $1.2 million (-46%)
• Weeks opened: 5
• Theaters: 1,217 (-769)
• Per-theater average: $1,027
• Cume to date: $49 million
OTHER OPENINGS
Stage Beauty (Lions Gate, R)
• Gross: $39,000
• Weeks opened: NEW!
• Theaters: 3
• Per-theater average: $13,000
Primer (ThinkFilm, PG-13)
• Gross: $30,360
• Weeks opened: NEW!
• Theaters: 3
• Per-theater average: $10,120