Although Batman Begins took the top spot for the second week in a row with $26.7 million, the box office decline continues.
Even with a flurry of newcomers–including the Nicole Kidman/Will Ferrell romantic comedy Bewitched, which came in second with $20.2 million; the Lindsay Lohan/Love Bug update Herbie: Fully Loaded, which opened in fourth with $12.7 million; and George A. Romero’s Land of the Dead zombie flick, which debuted in fifth with $10.2 million–overall movie revenues were down again, making it the longest modern box office slump ever.
If the slump continues, Hollywood is on course for a third straight year of declining admissions and its lowest ticket sales since the mid-1990s, The Associated Press reports.
“We’re working with a pretty huge deficit that would take a lot of business to overcome,” Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Exhibitor Relations, told AP. “Just breaking the slump is not enough. We would have to reverse the trend and see attendance on a big uptick.”
A big Fourth of July weekend is expected from Steven Spielberg and Tom Cruise‘s War of the Worlds, which opens Wednesday, but Hollywood still may not snap its losing streak. Over the same weekend last year, Spider-Man 2 pulled in $180 million in its first six days, leading the industry to a record Fourth of July.
This weekend, the Top 12 films grossed an estimated $116.5 million, down 10.06 percent from last weekend’s $129.5 million take and down 15.84 percent from this time last year’s draw of $138.4 million.
The Top Three films at the box office this time last year were: Lions Gate’s R-rated Fahrenheit 9/11, which opened in the No. 1 spot with $23.9 million in 868 theaters, averaging $27,558 per theater; Sony Pictures PG-13 rated White Chicks, which opened in second place with $19.6 million in 2,726 theaters, averaging $7,218 per theater; and 20th Century Fox’s PG-13 rated Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, which dropped to third place in its second week with $18.7 million in 3,020 theaters, averaging $6,221 per theater.
(This week’s box office Top 10 below…)
BOX OFFICE TOP 10, ESTIMATES:
(Source: Exhibitor Relations, Inc.)
No. 1: Batman Begins (Warner Bros., PG-13)
Gross: $26.7 million (-45%)
Weeks opened: 2
Theaters: 3,858 (unchanged)
Per-theater average: $6,940
Cume to date: $121.6 million
No. 2: Bewitched (Sony Pictures., PG-13)
Gross: $20.2 million
Weeks opened: NEW!
Theaters: 3,174
Per-theater average: $6,364
No. 3: Mr. & Mrs. Smith (20th Century Fox, PG-13)
Gross: $16.7 million (-36%)
Weeks opened: 3
Theaters: 3,265 (-186)
Per-theater average: $5,130
Cume to date: $125.4 million
No. 4: Herbie: Fully Loaded (Buena Vista, G)
Gross: $12.7 million
Weeks opened: NEW!
Theaters: 3,521
Per-theater average: $3,621
No. 5: George A. Romero’s Land of the Dead (Universal, R)
Gross: $10.2 million
Weeks opened: NEW!
Theaters: 2,249
Per-theater average: $4,535
No. 6: Madagascar (DreamWorks, PG)
Gross: $7.3 million (-32%)
Weeks opened: 5
Theaters: 2,948 (-585)
Per-theater average: $2,476
Cume to date: $160.1 million
No. 7: Star Wars: Episode III-Revenge of the Sith (20th Century Fox, PG-13)
Gross: $6.2 million (-38%)
Weeks opened: 6
Theaters: 2,371 (-552)
Per-theater average: $2,636
Cume to date: $358.6 million
No. 8: The Longest Yard (Paramount Pictures, PG-13)
Gross: $5.4 million (-34%)
Weeks opened: 5
Theaters: 2,516 (-796)
Per-theater average: $2,176
Cume to date: $141.8 million
No. 9: The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl in 3-D (Miramax, PG)
Gross: $3.4 million (-49%)
Weeks opened: 3
Theaters: 2,352 (-303)
Per-theater average: $1,456
Cume to date: $30.4 million
No. 10: Cinderella Man (Universal, PG-13)
Gross: $3.3 million (-41%)
Weeks opened: 4
Theaters: 1,677 (-933)
Per-theater average: $1,968
Cume to date: $49.6 million
OTHER OPENINGS
Yes (Sony Pictures Classics, R)
Gross: $29,437
Weeks opened: NEW!
Theaters: 7
Per-theater average: $4,205
