Screen Gems THE EXORCISM OF EMILY ROSE surprised everyone with its screaming debut of $30M for the weekend ended Sept. 11, 2005. Budgeted at $19M, the indie horror/courtroom drama, contains vfx from Captive Audience Prods.
Holding second place was Universals THE 40-YEAR-OLD VIRGIN, which tallied $7.7M for a cume of $82.1M. Foxs TRANSPORTER 2 (with vfx by big red pixel), last years leader, slipped to third with $7.3M and $30.3M. Focus Features indie thriller, THE CONSTANT GARDENER (with vfx from Framestore CFC), came in the fourth spot with $4.7M and $19M. DreamWorks RED EYE (with vfx by Digital Dream) followed in fifth place with $4.4M and $51.1M. New Lines comedy, THE MAN, debuted in sixth place with a disappointing $4M. Dimensions THE BROTHERS GRIMM (with vfx by Peerless Camera Co. Ltd., Lip Sync Post and Artem Ltd.) fell to seventh with $3.3M and $33.2M. New Lines WEDDING CRASHERS crossed the $200M threshold by adding $3.2M for an eighth place finish. Paramounts FOUR BROTHERS (with vfx by Mr. X and Creature Effects) settled for ninth with $2.9M and a cume of $68.2M. Coming in 10th with $2.6M was the doc phenom from Warner International Pictures, MARCH OF THE PENGUINS, which now totals $66.9M.
With $295,723, DreamWorks Animations MADAGASCAR has gone past TOY STORY for the number seven spot on the all-time list of computer-animated features, with its cume of $191.9M vs. $191.7M for the Disney/Pixar groundbreaking movie.
Hayao Miyazakis HOWLS MOVING CASTLE collected another $13, 514 for a cume of $4.6M for Buena Vista (with Pixars Pete Docter and Disneys Rick Dempsey overseeing the American version). It still ranks seventh on the all-time list of anime titles. Box office information obtained from boxofficemojo.com.
Bill Desowitz, former editor of VFXWorld, is currently the Crafts Editor of IndieWire.
