Weekend Roundup: Sex Sells!

By Katey Rich

What's that? Older female movie stars can't open movies? Females don't go to movies enough to be viable audiences? Hmm... then how does that explain the whopping $56 million Sex and the City made over the weekend, enough to best Indiana Jones and become the best-opening romantic comedy of all time? Interesting indeed.

Sex and the City's monster opening led a box office that was up all around, with fellow debut The Strangers performing well above expectations, at #3 with $20 million. Between the two was Indy 4, which declined a decent 54% from opening weekend to bring in $46 million. Indy may not be on top anymore, but he's brought in over $200 million in just two weeks; not bad for a sexagenarian, I'd say.

Behind The Strangers, Iron Man continues pummeling Prince Caspian in the early-summer blockbuster demolition derby. Despite being in release for two additional weeks, Iron Man pulled ahead of Caspian this weekend, bringing in $14 million to Caspian's $13 million. Speed Racer, on the other hand, still can't catch a break. It fell to #8 this weekend, bringing in only $2 million.

The rest of the top 10 was filled, interestingly enough, with romantic comedies, though none of them as massive as Sex and the City. What Happens in Vegas hung on at #6 with $6.8 million, with Baby Mama lagging well behind at #7 with $2.2 million. Made of Honor and Forgetting Sarah Marshall wrapped things up at #9 and #10, with $2 million for Patrick Dempsey and $1 million for Jason Segel.

After the jump is the full top 20 from Box Office Mojo, back after last week's hiatus. Tarsem's The Fall made a huge jump after adding 88 screens, and got a $3,300 per-theatre average for its troubles. And my favorite little engine that could, Nim's Island, is holding steady, making only a tiny amount of money, but being the only game in town that's bothering to entertain young girls until Abigail Breslin shows up again in Kit Kittredge: An American Girl. What was that about movies not needing to appeal to women again?

TW	LW	Title (click to view)	Studio	Weekend Gross	% Change	Theater Count / Change		Average	Total Gross	Budget*	Week #
1	N	Sex and the City	NL	$55,740,000	-	3,285	-	$16,968	$55,740,000	$65	1
2	1	Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull	Par.	$46,000,000	-54.1%	4,264	+4	$10,787	$216,881,000	$185	2
3	N	The Strangers	Rog.	$20,707,000	-	2,467	-	$8,393	$20,707,000	$9	1
4	3	Iron Man	Par.	$14,000,000	-31.5%	3,650	-265	$3,835	$276,625,000	$140	5
5	2	The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian	BV	$13,016,000	-42.9%	3,801	-128	$3,424	$115,674,000	$200	3
6	4	What Happens in Vegas	Fox	$6,850,000	-24.9%	3,086	-102	$2,219	$66,074,000	$35	4
7	6	Baby Mama	Uni.	$2,221,000	-33.8%	1,784	-374	$1,244	$56,145,000	$30	6
8	5	Speed Racer	WB	$2,140,000	-45.7%	2,070	-1,042	$1,033	$40,558,000	$120	4
9	7	Made of Honor	Sony	$2,000,000	-40.3%	1,905	-488	$1,049	$42,965,000	$40	5
10	8	Forgetting Sarah Marshall	Uni.	$1,044,000	-41.0%	768	-305	$1,359	$60,471,000	$30	7
11	10	The Visitor	Over.	$603,000	-16.7%	270	-	$2,233	$5,372,000	-	8
12	9	Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay	NL	$475,000	-48.8%	474	-276	$1,002	$36,955,000	$12	6
13	11	Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who!	Fox	$385,000	-19.4%	433	-55	$889	$152,589,000	$85	12
14	39	The Fall	RAtt.	$361,000	+628.9%	108	+88	$3,342	$662,000	-	4
15	13	Then She Found Me	Think	$272,000	-31.8%	150	-	$1,813	$2,546,000	-	6
16	12	The Forbidden Kingdom	LGF	$247,000	-41.0%	262	-225	$942	$51,730,000	-	7
17	17	Nim's Island	Fox	$242,000	-18.7%	350	-76	$691	$46,120,000	$37	9
18	14	Young@Heart	FoxS	$222,000	-31.0%	197	-15	$1,126	$2,842,000	-	8
19	18	Son of Rambow	ParV	$171,000	-29.1%	139	-13	$1,230	$1,181,000	-	5