TERMINATOR 3: RISE OF THE MACHINES may have won the Independence holiday box office race for Warner Bros., taking in $44M for the weekend and $72.3M for the five-day period (bolstered by the combined VFX of Industrial Light + Magic, Anatomorphex, Pacific Data Images, Pacific Titles & Optical and Stan Winston Studio), but the big story was FINDING NEMO. The Disney/Pixar blockbuster passed SHREK as the computer animation box office leader and THE MATRIX RELOADED as summer king. NEMO caught another $11M in the number four spot (down only 21% in its sixth weekend). That totals nearly $275M, surpassing SHREK's $267.6M. The big question that remains is whether NEMO has the fin power to overtake Disney's THE LION KING, which is the reigning animation leader at $312.8M?
Meanwhile, DreamWorks' SINBAD: LEGEND OF THE SEVEN SEAS fared poorly in its debut at number six, with only $6.8M for the weekend and $10M for the five-day period. Whether it was the lack of drawing power of the legendary source material, the 2D stigma (though there is lots of CG elements) or just bad timing during a lackluster summer, SINBAD failed to lure enough repeat viewers away from NEMO.
Debuting at number two was LEGALLY BLONDE 2: RED, WHITE AND BLUE. The MGM sequel, with Reese Witherspoon reprising her sassy role and VFX supplied by Pixel Magic, hauled in $22.2M for the weekend and $38.5M for the five-day period. Dropping to third place was Sony's CHARLIE'S ANGELS: FULL THROTTLE (with Sony Pictures Imageworks and The Orphanage supplying the bulk of the VFX). The ANGELS took nearly a 63% hit with $14M for a total of $67M. Universal's THE HULK continued its downward spiral with $8.2M. The ILM VFX feast has earned $117M to date.
Fox Searchilight's U.K. zombie flick, 28 DAYS LATER (with VFX by Clear and The Moving Picture Co.), slipped to number seven with $6M. That's still good enough for a whopping $20.5M. Finishing in eighth place with $4.2M was Paramount's THE ITALIAN JOB, whose cume is now $83.8M. At number nine, BRUCE ALMIGHTY is running out of divine steam. The Jim Carrey God-induced comedy took in $4M for a hefty $228.6M to date. Universal's 2 FAST 2 FURIOUS dropped to number 10 with $2.6 M and a grand tally of $119.4 M. Crystal Dowd served as VFX producer and Collin Fowler was VFX coordinator for Illusion Arts. Box office information obtained from boxofficemojo.com.
Bill Desowitz, former editor of VFXWorld, is currently the Crafts Editor of IndieWire.
