When the final box office results were tabulated for the four-day Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend (ended Jan. 16, 2006), GLORY ROAD from Buena Vista nudged past HOODWINKED from The Weinstein Co: $16.92M vs. $16.87M. Nonetheless, the fractured riff on LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD exceeded all expectations as the first 3D-animated feature released in 06, with a record dozen or so to come in a single calendar year.
Another newcomer, Paramounts LAST HOLIDAY, followed third place with $15.5M. Buena Vistas THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE fell to fourth with $12.8M. With impressive vfx from Rhythm & Hues, Sony Pictures Imageworks and ILM, NARNIA now has accumulated $264M. Lionsgates HOSTEL (with vfx from Precinct 13 Ent.), last weeks box office leader, slipped to the fifth spot with $11.4M for a two-week total of $36.5M. Sonys FUN WITH DICK AND JANE finished sixth with $10.3M and $94.2M. Universals KING KONG (with impressive vfx from Weta Digital) settled for seventh with $9M as it reached $204.5M. Foxs TRISTAN & ISOLDE bowed in eighth place with $7.6M. Focus Oscar front-runner BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN finished ninth with $7M and $32M to date. Rounding out the top 10 was Foxs CHEAPER BY THE DOZEN 2 with $6.8M and a cume of $74.6M. Box office information obtained from boxofficemojo.com.
Bill Desowitz, former editor of VFXWorld, is currently the Crafts Editor of IndieWire.
