Twentieth Century Foxs FANTASTIC FOUR exceeded all expectations with a fantastic $56M debut for the weekend ended July 10, 2005, signifying the fifth best opening for a comicbook movie. Coupled with solid holdover business from WAR OF THE WORLDS and BATMAN BEGINS, FANTASTIC FOUR (with vfx principally from Giant Killer Robots, Stan Winston Digital and Soho VFX) helped snap the 19-week year-to-year box office skid.
Slipping to second place, Paramounts WAR OF THE WORLDS (with vfx from ILM) grabbed $30.4M for a two-week cume of $164.9M. But with another $60.5M overseas, Steven Spielbergs blockbuster exceeded $200M in foreign grosses. Warner Bros. BATMAN BEGINS (with vfx from Double Negative, MPC, Rising Sun Pictures and BUF) followed in third with $10M and a four-week cume of $171.9M. Buena Vistas horror-filled DARK WATER (with vfx from Digital Domain, Flash Film Works and others) debuted in fourth with $9.9M. Foxs MR. AND MRS. SMITH (with vfx from Digital Dimension) came in fifth with $7.8M and $158.6M. Placing sixth was Buena Vistas HERBIE: FULLY LOADED (with vfx by Entity FX, ILM and a host of other boutiques). Sonys BEWITCHED (with vfx by Sony Pictures Imageworks) occupied the seventh spot with $5.5M and a cume of $50.9M. DreamWorks MADAGASCAR held the eighth spot with $4M and a total of $179.2M (eighth on the all-time list of 3D-animated features). Foxs REBOUND wound up ninth in its second week with $3M and $11.5M. Foxs STAR WARS: EPISODE III REVENGE OF THE SITH (with impressive vfx from ILM) finished 10th with $2.6M and a cume of $370.8M (ninth on the all-time list).
Hayao Miyazakis well-received HOWLS MOVING CASTLE collected $305,925 for a cume of $3.8M for Buena Vista (with Pixars Pete Docter and Disneys Rick Dempsey overseeing the American version). It now 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.
