The Hollywood Blacklist: Transporter 2 Sets New Labor Day Record

The Hollywood Blacklist

An unapologetic Wisconsin Republican taking the left-wing Hollywood radical elitists to task and fighting spiritedly against their self-aggrandizing agenda of political correctness and liberal methodology which only serves to demonizing the United States military in their efforts to bring victory to the war against terrorism. Only the operator of this weblog can directly post here, but comments are always welcome. You can e-mail the owner of this site at joseph.kastner@marquette.edu.

Tuesday, September 06, 2005

Transporter 2 Sets New Labor Day Record

Jason Statham's return as Frank Martin in the action-sequel Transporter 2 set a new Labor Day holiday weekend box office record. The 20th Century Fox release, budgeted at $32 million, earned an impressive $20.3 million from 3,303 theaters over the four days, surpassing 2003's Jeepers Creepers 2, which made $18.4 million. The film's tally almost equaled the entire haul of its predecessor, The Transporter, which ended up with $25.3 million in 2002. That film opened to $9.1 million in its three-day opening weekend.

Universal's The 40-Year-Old Virgin, starring Steve Carell, dropped to second place after reigning in first for the last two weeks. The R-rated comedy added $16.6 million during the four days for a total of $71.9 million in three weeks. It only cost about $26 million to make.

Third place belonged to director Fernando Meirelles' The Constant Gardener, starring Ralph Fiennes and Rachel Weisz. The well-reviewed dramatic thriller made $10.8 million from just 1,346 theaters for a total of $12.5 million since its debut on Wednesday. The Focus Features release made more in six days than Meirelles' last movie, City of God, earned in 17 months in theaters and it is also the fourth-biggest opening ever for the Labor Day holiday weekend.

Wes Craven's Red Eye dropped a spot to fourth with $9.3 million in its third weekend. The $26 million DreamWorks thriller has collected $45.4 million to date.

Terry Gilliam's The Brothers Grimm rounded out the top five with $7.9 million in its second weekend. Made for $88 million, the fantasy-adventure has earned $27.6 million so far.

Two other newcomers bombed out of the gate. Nick Cannon action-comedy Underclassman made just $3.1 million from 1,132 theaters, good for the 11th spot, while Warner Bros.' A Sound of Thunder did even worse, making just $1.2 million from 816 locations. The latter cost $80 million to make.