Bourne reigned supreme at the box office this weekend.
The thinking man’s spy sequel The Bourne Supremacy, starring Matt Damon, easily stole the top spot from last week’s champ I, Robot, debuting with a hefty $54.5 million, while the Will Smith sci-fi actioner had to settle for second with $22 million.
This marks the biggest debut for the Oscar-winning Damon, whose previous best opener, Ocean’s Eleven, premiered in 2001 with $38.1 million. The original The Bourne Identity opened in 2002 with $27.1 million.
The biggest disappointment this weekend was Halle Berry‘s widely panned Catwoman, which ended up covered in kitty litter in third place, opening with a less-than-stellar $17.1 million.
“I was hoping it would open up with a few more dollars in the bank,” Dan Fellman, Warne Bros.’ head of distribution told The Associated Press. “But it’s a pretty competitive weekend out there. We’ll have to see how we hold up during the week.”
Meanwhile, Michael Moore‘s controversial documentary Fahrenheit 9/11, in seventh place, crossed the $100 million mark with a total gross of $103.3 million. “If you had told me when we were going through all the pre-distribution problems with Disney that this film would gross more than any other Disney film this year [including the most recent King Arthur], I don’t even know how to respond to that,” Moore told AP.
This weekend, the Top 12 films grossed $141.4 million, up less than 1 percent from last weekend’s $140.8 million, but down 4.10 percent from the same weekend last year, when they grossed $147.4 million.
The top three films at the box office this time last year were Miramax’s PG rated Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over, which opened in the top spot with $33.4 million in 3,344 theaters, averaging $9,993 per theater; Buena Vista’s PG-13 rated Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl followed in second place in its third week with $23.1 million in 3,416 theaters with a $6,773 per theater average; and Sony Pictures’ R rated Bad Boys II came in third in its second week with $22 million in 3,202 theaters with a $6,887 per theater average.
BOX OFFICE TOP 10, ESTIMATES: (Source: Exhibitor Relations, Inc.)
No. 1: The Bourne Supremacy (Universal Pictures, PG-13)
Gross: $53.5 million
Weeks opened: NEW!
Theaters: 3,165
Per-theater average: $16,910
No. 2: I, Robot (20th Century Fox, PG-13)
Gross: $22 million (-58%)
Weeks opened: 2
Theaters: 3,494
Per-theater average: $6,311
Cume to date: $ 95.4 million
No. 3: Catwoman (Warner Bros., PG-13)
Gross: $17.1 million
Weeks opened: NEW!
Theaters: 3,117
Per-theater average: $5,504
No. 4: Spider-Man 2 (Sony Pictures, PG-13)
Gross: $15 million (-39%)
Weeks opened: 4
Theaters: 3,753 (-305)
Per-theater average: $3,997
Cume to date: $ 328.4 million
No. 5: Cinderella Story (Warner Bros., PG)
Gross: $8 million (-41%)
Weeks opened: 2
Theaters: 2,625 (unchanged)
Per-theater average: $3,063
Cume to date: $ 29.8 million
No. 6: Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (DreamWorks, PG-13)
Gross: $7.1 million (-49%)
Weeks opened: 3
Theaters: 2,936 (-168)
Per-theater average: $2,418
Cume to date: $71.2 million
No. 7: Fahrenheit 9/11 (Lions Gate, IFC Films; R)
Gross: $5 million (-30%)
Weeks opened: 5
Theaters: 1,855 (-149)
Per-theater average: $2,695
Cume to date: $103.3 million
No. 8: The Notebook (New Line Cinema, PG-13)
Gross: $4.4 million (-21%)
Weeks opened: 5
Theaters: 2,003 (-86)
Per-theater average: $2,222
Cume to date: $62.5 million
No. 9: King Arthur (Buena Vista, PG-13)
Gross: $3 million (-57%)
Weeks opened: 3
Theaters: 2,104 (-982)
Per-theater average: $1,456
Cume to date: $45.1 million
No. 10: Shrek 2 (DreamWorks, PG)
Gross: $2.4 million (-26%)
Weeks opened: 6
Theaters: 1,559 (-298)
Per-theater average: $1,539
Cume to date: $429.5 million
OTHER OPENINGS
The Blind Swordsman: Zatoichi (Miramax, R)
Gross: $56,778
Weeks opened: NEW!
Theaters: 4
Per-theater average: $14,195
A Home at the End of the World (Universal Pictures, PG-13)
Gross: $66,000 million
Weeks opened: NEW!
Theaters: 5
Per-theater average: $13,200
