Stranger Calls, Box Office Answers

Source: Comingsoon.net

For the fourth time in four years, Sony's Screen Gems division released a movie the same weekend as the Super Bowl, and for the fourth time, it proved fruitful, as the thriller When A Stranger Calls earned more money than any other movie in theatres this weekend. The remake of the 1979 B-movie grossed an estimated $22 million its opening weekend, bringing in more business than Screen Gems' remake of The Fog, last year's Boogeyman and 2002's Darkness Falls.

Dropping down to second place, Martin Lawrence's comedy sequel Big Momma's House 2 earned $13.3 million in its second weekend, a huge 51% plunge from its impressive debut, although it has already grosssed a respectable $45 million total.

Adding more theatres from its own inaugural weekend, Universal Pictures' family comedy Nanny McPhee, starring Emma Thompson, held up much better, earning just under $10 million in its second weekend while dropping down to third place. It has grossed $26.6 million.

In its first weekend after receiving more Oscar nominations than any other film, the Ang Lee drama Brokeback Mountain added 400 more theatres and maintained interest in its 9th weekend, moving into the Top 5 for the first time since its debut and earning an additional $5.7 million for a total of just below $60 million.

The Weinstein Company's computer animated comedy Hoodwinked stayed in fifth place for a second week, grossing $5.3 million over the weekend to bring its total up to $44 million.

Sony/Screen Gems' other film in theatres, the action sequel Underworld: Evolution, dropped down to sixth place with $5.1 million, for a total of $52.7 million, the highest gross for a film released in 2006.

Focus Features' urban romantic comedy Something New, with Aliens vs. Predator star Sanaa Lathan, opened in seventh place with an unimpressive weekend take of $5 million in 1,266 theatres, an average of less than $4,000 per theatre.

At #8, Touchstone Pictures' military drama Annapolis, starring James Franco and Tyrese Gibson, also took a tumble in its second weekend, earning $3.5 million.

With two Oscar nominations under its belt for lead actors Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon, the Johnny Cash biodrama Walk the Line moved back into the top 10 as it rounded out its third month in theatres. It grossed $3.4 million in 1,577 theatres, bringing its total to $110 million, despite being snubbed for a best picture nomination on Tuesday.

Walt Disney's basketball drama Glory Road, produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, rounded out the Top 10 with $3 million and a running total of $39 million, while the studio's fantasy epic The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe continues to hold up well on its potentially vain attempt to reach $300 million. It earned just under $3 million in its ninth weekend to reach a total gross of $281 million.

Opening in select cities after a December Oscar run, Roger Donaldson's biodrama The World's Fastest Indian, starring Anthony Hopkins as New Zealand speed demon Burt Munro, made $460 thousand in 114 theatres, a per-theatre average of just over $4 thousand in each. The Magnolia Pictures release will be one of the few independent films to receive a Super Bowl spot today.

Tommy Lee Jones' directorial debut, the drama The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, opened in 33 theatres, where it earned $248 thousand, an average of $7.5 thousand per theatre, while the Lionsgate period comedy A Good Woman, a throwaway project based on the Oscar Wilde play starring Helen Hunt and Scarlett Johanssen, earned an unremarkable $105 thousand in 35 theatres its debut weekend.