50 FIRST DATES, the Adam Sandler/Drew Barrymore romantic comedy from Sony, collected $45.1M worth of hugs and kisses at the box office over Valentine's Day and President's Day weekend. Good enough, in fact, to break the record for romantic comedy and President's Day bows. Disney's MIRACLE was a distant second with $17M and a two-week cume of $40M. MGM's BARBERSHOP 2: BACK IN BUSINESS, last week's champ, had to settle for third place, ringing up $16.5M for a two-week total of $44.9M. Screen Gems' YOU GOT SERVED came in fourth with $6M and a total of $33M. New Line's THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT (with vfx by Schminken Studio and Toybox) held at number five with $5.95M and a total of $49.1M. Fox's CATCH THAT KID stayed in sixth place with $5.8M for a two-week cume of $12.3M. Universal's ALONG CAME POLLY dropped to seventh place with $5.4M and $82M to date. New Line's THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RETURN OF THE KING (with more dazzling vfx by Weta Digital) took the eighth spot by grabbing another $5M on its way to a phenomenal $357.3M and a worldwide cume of $975.6M. It is now poised to join the $1B club, second only to TITANIC's $1.83B. Warner Bros.' MYSTIC RIVER came in ninth with $4.3M and $75.2M. And Miramax's COLD MOUNTAIN held the 10th spot with $3.9M and $87.7M to date. Box office information obtained from boxofficemojo.com.
Bill Desowitz, former editor of VFXWorld, is currently the Crafts Editor of IndieWire.
