STAR WARS: EPISODE III REVENGE OF THE SITH continued its box office dominance for the second consecutive week, grabbing $70M for the four-day Memorial Day weekend ended May 30, 2005. That means that the final STAR WARS saga has earned $270.4M for Fox domestically, continuing to set records for nine-day to 12-day grosses. SITH has also earned $248.9M overseas.
Meanwhile, DreamWorks MADAGASCAR debuted in second place with $61M, good if not spectacular numbers for the 3D-animated comedy, resulting in a stock fall off of 9% for DreamWorks Animation. However, the film still could reach $200M.
Paramounts THE LONGEST YARD remake with Adam Sandler and Chris Rock (who co-stars in MADAGASCAR) bowed in third with $58.6M. New Lines MONSTER-IN-LAW (with vfx by Digital Dimension) settled for fourth with $12.7M and a cume of $62.4M. Universals KICKING & SCREAMING drifted to the fifth spot with $6.5M and $44.1M. Lions Gates CRASH occupied sixth place with $6M and $36.1M. Universals THE INTERPRETER actually moved up a notch to seventh place with $2.6M and $69.1M. Focus UNLEASHED dropped to eighth with $2.4M and $22.1M. Foxs KINGDOM OF HEAVEN (with vfx from The Moving Picture Co., Double Negative, Framestore CFC and Clear) fell to ninth place with $2.2M and a cume of $45M. And Warner Bros. HOUSE OF WAX (with vfx by Photon VFX) took 10th place with $1.6M and a tally of $29.8M. Box office information obtained from boxofficemojo.com.
Bill Desowitz, former editor of VFXWorld, is currently the Crafts Editor of IndieWire.
