1. Ratatouille - 47.2 Million
2. Live Free or Die Hard - 33.1 Million
3. Evan Almighty - 15 Million
4. 1408 - 10.6 Million
5. Fantastic Four 2 - 9 Million
6. Knocked Up - 7.4 Million
7. Ocean’s 13 - 6 Million
8. Pirates 3 - 6 Million
9. Sicko - 4.5 Million
10. Evening - 3.5 Million

Ratatouille ended up coming up on top for the weekend estimates, but Live Free or Die Hard is the true winner, as it actually grossed 48 million if you include money made from Wednesday and Thursday. Both movies got great reviews, but Ratatouille’s numbers are quite low for Pixar. A Pixar film has not had such a low first week opening since A Bug’s Life, but hopefully the good word of mouth and the lack of competition will keep it afloat.

There’s so many movies out right now I wanna see!

Many people criticized the choice of Daniel Craig as the newest 007 now that Pierce Brosnan has officially left the franchise, but Daniel’s getting the last laugh now that Casino Royale is, so far, a critical and commercial success. It was number two in its opening weekend, only second to the animated film Happy Feet which beat it by 1.5 million dollars.

It made 40 million in the states, and has so far grossed about 42 million outside of the states. For a movie with a budget of about 150 million dollars, it looks like things are going well. I still have no desire to see the movie, as I hate spy movies and have never enjoyed the James Bond films, but it seems people are enjoying this one.

Maybe I would’ve pushed myself to the theater if they’d chosen Nip/Tuck hottie Julian McMahon.

One of my favorite male actors Matt Damon is on the cover of December’s Details magazine, but I must say I’m a bit disappointed with the picture. Matt’s always been a hottie to me–ever since I saw him the fabulous Talented Mr. Ripley, but he’s been seeming a little off lately. Maybe he’s getting old? I dunno, but he’s still a great actor. I can’t wait to download go buy my ticket to see The Departed.

Matt has both Ocean’s Thirteen and The Good Shepherd coming out soon, which are sure to be box office hits, and with the success of The Departed, which has grossed 168 million dollars worldwide, Matty is on his way to the top of the A-List.

Meanwhile it’s been confirmed that Edgar Ramirez (whom you might know from Domino–or not) will play the villain in the upcoming sequel The Bourne Ultimatum, which is set for an August 3, 2007 release date.

Here’s the plotline:

In the new chapter of this espionage series, Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) will hunt down his past in order to find a future. He must travel from Moscow, Paris, Madrid and London to Tangier and New York City as he continues his quest to find the real Jason Bourne–all the while trying to outmaneuver the scores of cops, federal officers and Interpol agents with him in their crosshairs.

And the trailer:

Popbytes has info on what Matt says in the interview about whose career he envies and what he doesn’t like about doing interviews.

The “Pirates of the Caribbean” sequel logged a third weekend as the most popular movie in North America, while the latest films from directors M. Night Shyamalan and Ivan Reitman both bombed, according to studio estimates issued on Sunday.

Shyamalan’s mystical fantasy “Lady in the Water” opened at No. 3 with $18.2 million, amid a critical pasting that got personal at times. The New York Post described Shyamalan as “a crackpot with a messianic delusions.”

His last movie, “The Village,” opened to $50 million in 2004 and stalled at $114 million — half of what 2002’s “Signs” finished up with. Shyamalan’s 1999 breakthrough, “The Sixth Sense,” earned $293.5 million.

The new movie was distributed by Time Warner Inc.’s (TWX.N: Quote, Profile, Research) Warner Bros. Pictures, which said it had hoped for an opening in the mid-$20 million range. It cost in the mid-$50 million range to make.

Reitman’s romantic comedy “My Super Ex-Girlfriend,” which received only marginally better reviews, opened at No. 7 with $8.7 million. The Uma Thurman vehicle marked Reitman’s first directing effort since the 2001 flop “Evolution.”

***
Entourage.

Entourage has been very fast-paced this season. It seems there’s a dramatic cliffhanger at the end of every episode. Some people have complained about it, but I actually like it.

The show at first was very flimsy–it was fun to watch, but you didn’t get very vested in the characters or the story. I only tuned in at my leisure and didn’t really care if I’d missed an episode–most of the time I only cared about seeing Jeremy Piven. But now the show has really become a bonafide male version of Sex & The City which is a compliment not an insult.

Now lots of things are in financial jeopardy because Vince no longer has Aquaman 2 (remember he just bought all these new cars). And he can’t get back in Medellin because Benicio Del Toro has already been cast in Vince’s role. How will Ari, Eric, and Vince handle this? I guess we’ll find out tonight.

The promos hint that Ari tries going to his former boss for help, and it looks like Eric has gotten attached to Tori (the girl he and Sloane had a threesome with).

Tonight. 10 PM. HBO

Source: Coming Soon

Walt Disney Pictures’ highly-anticipated Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, starring Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom, Keira Knightley and Bill Nighy, broke Spider-Man’s ($114.8 million) four-year-old opening weekend record with a massive $132 million from 4,133 theaters, the fourth-widest release ever.

The movie made $55.5 million on Friday (the biggest single day and opening day in box office history, surpassing Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith ($50 million)), $44.7 million on Saturday (the fifth-biggest single day) and $31.8 million on Sunday, for an average of $31,944 per theater for the weekend.

If estimates hold, this means that “Dead Man’s Chest” crossed the $100 million mark in two days, which has never been done before - the previous fastest time was three days. “Dead Man’s Chest” also earned $46.6 million internationally for a worldwide total of $178.6 million. Produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and directed by Gore Verbinski, the movie cost about $225 million to make. The third installment, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, hits theaters on May 25, 2007.

The big opening for “Pirates” caused Warner Bros.’ Superman Returns to drop 58.4% in ticket sales, for a second weekend take of $21.9 million. The Bryan Singer-directed comic book adaptation, made for $260 million, has reached $141.7 million in 12 days.

In third place, 20th Century Fox’s The Devil Wears Prada earned another impressive $15.6 million in its second weekend, pushing its total to $63.7 million in just two weeks. The comedy, starring Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway, cost $35 million to make.

Adam Sandler comedy Click collected $12 million for the fourth spot and has earned a total of $105.9 million in three weeks.

Disney/Pixar’s animated-comedy Cars held up well in its fifth week, earning $10.3 million for a total of $205.5 million.

In limited release, Richard Linklater’s A Scanner Darkly, with Keanu Reeves, Winona Ryder, Robert Downey Jr. and Woody Harrelson, garnered $406,000 from just 17 theaters, for an average of $23,882 per location.

Source: Coming Soon

The first half of the summer of ‘06 ended with a bang as the pre-4th of July weekend saw two very different adaptations bring a large and diverse audience of moviegoers into theatres. Although the week began with everyone talking about Bryan Singer’s Superman Returns, 20th Century Fox’s attempt at counterprogramming certainly had a lot more tongues wagging over the weekend.

After grossing over $32 million on Wednesday and Thursday, Warner Bros’ Superman Returns was able to top the weekend with approximately $52.1 million in over 4,000 theatres, an average of $12,829 per theatres. Its total of $84.3 million in five days exceeded that of Batman Begins and Peter Jackson’s King Kong in their first five days, but it’s pretty disappointing compared to the $200 million plus price tag it cost to tell the Man of Steel’s latest adventure. It wil hope to build on any word-of-mouth in the next few days before Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest takes over next weekend.

Based on the bestselling novel by Lauren Weisberger, 20th Century Fox’s The Devil Wears Prada paired Anne “The Princess Diaries” Hathaway with Meryl Streep for a comedy set in the world of fashion. Women flocked to it in droves this weekend, allowing it to make roughly $27 million in roughly 1,200 fewer theatres than “Superman,” averaging $9,483 per theatre. It’s safe to assume that the stronger choice kept women away from the superhero movie, despite WB’s attempts to sell them on the romance and relationship between Superman and Lois Lane.

With two dominant forces entering the box office, many of the returning movies lost screens and took substantial hits this weekend.

Dropping down to third place, Adam Sandler’s new comedy Click, which opened at #1 last weekend with $40 million, made less than half that in its second frame, grossing another $19.4 million to bring its total just under $78 million.

Disney/Pixar’s animated comedy Cars also dropped down two places to 4th with roughly $14 million, having accumulated $182 million in its first four weeks in theatres.

In fifth place, the Paramount/Nickelodeon comedy Nacho Libre, starring Jack Black, also dropped 51%, making $6.2 million in its third weekend with its total gross nearing $65 million.

Despite the stronger “chick flick” entering theatres, Warner Bros’ romantic drama The Lake House, reuniting Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock, held up better than other movies, dropping less than 50% with an additional $4.5 million, its box office take reaching $38.7 million.

Also in its third weekend, Univeral’s threequel The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift dropped three places to 7th, where it grossed another $4.4 million, bringing its total box office up to $51.7 million.

Tyrese Gibson’s urban gangster drama, Waist Deep, took the biggest plunge in the Top 10, with $3.3 million, 65% less than its opening weekend take, and also dropping three positions.

The Jennifer Aniston-Vince Vaughn comedy The Break-Up made another $2.8 million this weekend. Its $110 million gross makes it the top non-animated comedy of the summer.

Sony’s The Da Vinci Code, starring Tom Hanks, held onto its place in the Top 10 with another $2.3 million and a total gross of $209.7 million.

Two Fox sequels rounded out the Top 12 with X-Men: The Last Stand making $2 million and Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties making slightly less after each of them lost over 800 theatres this weekend. “X-Men” has grossed $228.5 million compared to “Garfield“’s $21.5 million.

THINKFilm’s Strangers With Candy, based on the Comedy Central show of the same name, opened in two locations in New York City on Wednesday, where it earned $70.6 thousand, while the Sony Classics environmental doc Who Killed the Electric Car? made less than that in four times as many theatres.

The roughly $136 million earned by the Top 10 was more than the same weekend last year where Tom Cruise and Steven Spielberg’s War of the Worlds dominated with just under $65 million on the 4th of July weekend.

Source: Coming Soon.net

Adam Sandler returned this weekend with his high-concept comedy Click, and despite bad reviews, it followed the path of many of his previous movies, grossing an estimated $40 million in its opening weekend, an average of $10,669 in 3,749 theatres. If that number sticks, then Click will be Sandler’s fourth-highest opening movie after last year’s The Longest Yard, 2003’s Anger Management and 1999’s Big Daddy.

Disney/Pixar’s animated comedy Cars did far better in its third weekend than last week, earning another $22.5 million, a scant 33% drop-off, to bring its box office total to $155 million.

Dropping down to third place, Jack Black’s Mexican wrestling comedy Nacho Libre didn’t hold up nearly as well, adding another $12.1 million in its second weekend to bring its total to $52.7 million.

Vondie Curtis-Hall’s crime drama Waist Deep, starring Tyrese Gibson and rapper The Game, had the most impressive opening of the month, earning $9.4 million in a mere 1,004 theatres, an average of $9,414 per theatre, not too far off the average of the higher profile Adam Sandler movie. It also made more its opening weekend than Tyrese’s last movie Annapolis did, despite opening in 600 fewer theatres.

It also managed to race past Univeral’s The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift to take fourth place, the threequel dropping 62% from its opening weekend and grossing another $9.2 million. Its total box office after ten days is roughly $42.5 million.

In sixth place, the Keanu Reeves-Sandra Bullock drama The Lake House took in another $8.3 million to bring its own gross over $29 million.

Univeral’s romantic comedy The Break-Up, starring Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn, crossed the $100 million mark over the weekend thanks to its $6.1 million weekend take.

Fox’s family sequel Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties flipped places with Fox’s other sequel X-Men: The Last Stand, the former making $4.7 million this weekend to the latter’s $4.4 million. Still, “Garfield” has only earned $16 million in its first ten days, less than the previous movie made its opening weekend, while “X-Men” is sitting pretty as the highest-grossing movie of 2006 with $224 million.

After becoming the second movie this year to cross the $200 million mark, Sony’s The Da Vinci Code brought in another $4 million over the weekend to round out the Top 10 with a total of $205 million.

DreamWorks’ Over the Hedge and Picturehouse’s A Prairie Home Companion rounded out the Top 12 with $2.7 and $2.2 million respectively, but Fox’s remake of The Omen took another huge tumble, falling out of the Top 12 with just $2.1 million while bringing its total after three weeks to just under $52 million.

IFC Films’ crossword documentary Wordplay added 43 theatres over the weekend, where it earned another $326 thousand, an average of $7,244.

On Friday, Jack Black’s Mexican wrestling comedy Nacho Libre earned close to $11 million, slightly more than Universal’s The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift and two million more than Disney/Pixar’s latest animated feature, Cars, but the Pixar movie used the family business over the weekend to make up the difference, enough to eek out a second weekend at #1.

With a 48% drop-off, possibly the worst decline for a Pixar movie to date, Cars ended up with an estimated $31.2 million in its second weekend, bringing its total to $114.5 million. At this point, it doesn’t look like it will be replicating the box office success of Pixar’s previous movies, but it could end up making over $160 million.

Directed by Napoleon Dynamite helmer Jared Hess, Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon’s PG comedy Nacho Libre made roughly $27.5 million over the weekend, enough for a solid second place, while becoming Jack Black’s highest opening comedy to date with an average of $8,961 in its 3,070 theatres.

Its prime competition for teen and older males, Univeral’s street racing threequel The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, lost another director and another star, but it earned just over $24 million its opening weekend. That might seem like chump change compared to the previous installment’s $50 million opening, but it’s still impressive considering the amount of competition for its audience this time around, but it still averaged $1,000 less per theatre than Nacho Libre.

Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves reunited for the romantic drama The Lake House, which opened in 2,645 theatres on Friday, and grossed $13.7 million over the weekend for fourth place. It averaged $5,166 per theatre.

Univeral’s romantic comedy The Break-Up, starring Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn, dropped down to 5th place with an additional $9.5 million, a 53% drop-off, which brought its box office total to $91.9 million in three weeks.

The bottom half of the Top 10 featured a trio of 20th Century Fox sequels and remakes:

With an estimated $7.2 million, the family sequel Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties, starring Jim Davis’ popular comic strip cat, once again voiced by Bill Murray, was a tragic disappointment compared to the $21.7 million opening of the original movie, which went on to gross over $75 million over the summer of ‘04. It would have the honor of being Fox’s first sequel of 2006 to fail miserably.

On the other hand, Fox’s successful sequel, X-Men: The Last Stand, added another $7.1 million to end up in 6th place just below “Garfield.” Its $215 million gross in less than a month keeps it well ahead of the pack in terms of being 2006’s highest grossing movie.

While the ironic 66.6% drop for The Omen may be great for Fox’s marketing campaign for the horror remake, it’s not a very good sign of the movie’s long-term appeal. It grossed roughly $5.3 million in its second weekend to bring its box office take to just under $47 million.

Sony’s controversial The Da Vinci Code, starring Tom Hanks, declared a more pronounced victory over its regular sparring partner, DreamWorks’ Over the Hedge in their fifth weekend in theatres. Although the former added another $5 million to its box office take, it’s yet to cross the $200 million mark, but it’s within strinking distance with $198.5 million so far. Rounding out the Top 10, Over the Hedge added another $4 million, a 60% drop due to the influx of more family films, to bring its total to $139 million.

Just outside the top 10, Robert Altman’s movie based on Garrison Keillor’s radio show A Prairie Home Companion added another $2.6 million, a 43% decline from its impressive opening weekend, while the global warming doc An Inconvenient Truth, starring former Vice President Al Gore, expanded into 404 theatres and added another $1.7 million, bringing its total to $6.4 million in four weeks of what is still considered a limited release.

Opening in two theatres in New York City, the popular Sundance documentary Wordplay, chronicling the appeal of the New York Times crossword puzzle, earned $35 thousand this weekend, almost twice as much as Kevin Bacon’s directorial debut Loverboy, which opened in twice as many theatres.

“Cars,” the latest animated feature from newly merged Walt Disney Co. and Pixar Animation Studios, zoomed past “The Break-Up,” starring real-life celebrity couple Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn, to finish first in North American theaters this weekend.

“Cars,” the cinematic tale of a talking hot rod named Lightning McQueen, brought in $62.8 million during its opening weekend, box office tracking firm Exhibitor Relations Co. Inc. said on Sunday.

“The Break-Up,” a surprise hit romantic comedy that actor Vaughn helped write, slipped into the No. 2 spot with $20.5 million in its second weekend.

The Friday-to-Sunday gross for “Cars” was the third-biggest opening for a film from Disney-Pixar, which has had a string of hits that have wheeled in more than $3.2 billion worldwide.

“Cars,” featuring the voices of Owen Wilson, Paul Newman, Helen Hunt and racing icon Richard Petty, is the seventh film from the team and its first collaboration since Disney acquired Pixar in January for $7.4 billion.

Chuck Viane, Disney’s president of distribution, expects the film to cross the $100 million mark sometime next weekend.

“I think we’re going to have legs,” he said. Viane added that international distribution has been delayed until the completion of the World Cup soccer championship on July 9.

The G-rated feature, in which up-and-coming race car Lightning McQueen learns valuable life lessons during a forced pit stop in a sleepy town, is directed by John Lasseter, whose “Toy Story 2” opened at $57.4 million.

The “Cars” opening weekend lagged the $70.5 million posted by “The Incredibles,” which chronicled the adventures of a superhero family, and the $70.3 million take from the fish tale “Finding Nemo” — the highest-grossing Disney-Pixar film ever, having reeled in more than $865 million worldwide.

“X-Men: The Last Stand,” the fantasy film starring Hugh Jackman and Halle Berry, came in at No. 3 with $15.6 million and has so far brought in $201.7 million — making it the first film of the year to break the $200 million mark.

News Corp.’s 20th Century Fox released “The Omen” on the date 6-6-06 and set a record for the most money collected by a movie with a Tuesday debut.

The horror remake is about a boy named Damien Thorn, who is a spawn of the devil and branded with the number 666 — which Christianity refers to as the mark of the devil. The movie scared up opening weekend receipts of $15.5 million.

DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc.’s “Over the Hedge” fell from third place to fifth.

The animal cartoon, which brought in $10.3 million over the weekend and $130.3 million since its debut, edged out “The Da Vinci Code.” That thriller had the second-biggest worldwide box office debut and has brought in $642 million globally, according to a spokesman for Sony Corp., whose Columbia Pictures unit distributed the film.

On the independent front, director Robert Altman’s “A Prairie Home Companion,” brought in $4.7 million from 760 theaters to land for a seventh place weekend finish.

Vince Vaughn and Jennifer Aniston took down the mutants in a weekend that was expected to see a second straight box office win for 20th Century Fox’s X-Men: The Last Stand.

Universal Pictures romantic comedy The Break-Up surprised the industry with an impressive $38.1 million from 3,070 theaters in its first weekend. The Vaughn and Aniston-starrer averaged a strong $12,395 per theater and cost about $52 million to make.

Fox’s X-Men: The Last Stand took a huge dive of 66.6% in its second weekend after setting the new Memorial Day weekend record last week. The third installment added $34.4 million and has collected $175.7 million so far domestically.

DreamWorks Animation’s Over the Hedge remained in the third spot and made another $20.6 million in its third weekend for a total of $112.4 million. The animated comedy was able to surpass Sony’s The Da Vinci Code, which had topped it the previous two weekends in North America. “Code” earned $19.3 million and has reached $172.7 million.

Tom Cruise’s Mission: Impossible III and Wolfgang Peterson’s Poseidon each dropped a spot with $4.7 million and $3.4 million, respectively. “M:i:III” has earned $122.7 million after five weeks, while Poseidon is at $51.7 million after four weeks.

Although it expanded to just 77 theaters, Al Gore documentary An Inconvenient Truth was able to enter the Top Ten in ninth with $1.3 million. The film has made $1.9 million in two weeks.

Also in limited release, the French action flick District B13, co-written and produced by Luc Besson, grossed $410,000 in its opening weekend in 151 theaters, a weak average of $2,715 per theater. Lionsgate opened the drama Peaceful Warrior in 10 theaters from which it made $77,000, and documentary The War Tapes was released in just one theater but managed to take in $13,200.