Finally a film has come along that was able to topple the box office power of LORD OF THE RINGS: THE TWO TOWERS, but strangely enough it was the low budget romantic comedy JUST MARRIED. Standing out as the lone new release this weekend, JUST MARRIED managed to debut in first place with $18M. This knocked THE TWO TOWERS, featuring primary visual effects by Weta Digital, down to second place, with $14.9M and a four-week cume of $283.6M. The crime caper CATCH ME IF YOU CAN, with visual effects by Asylum and a cool animated opener by Nexus Prods., earned $14.7M, breaking the $100M mark for a total of $119.7M in its third week. A few possible Oscar contenders went into wider release this weekend, meaning CHICAGO ($15.4 weekend/$17.1 total gross/5th place), ANTWONE FISHER ($3.8 weekend/$10.5 total gross/9th place) and ADAPTATION ($2.9 weekend/$9.5 total gross/10th place) all took spots in the top ten, knocking films like THE WILD THORNBERRYS MOVIE and HARRY POTTER way down to 14th and 15th place, respectively. THE WILD THORNBERRYS MOVIE earned $2.5M its fourth weekend out, giving the Nickelodeon/Paramount Production $34.9M to date. HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER'S STONE, with visual effects by ILM, added $2.9M to its 9-week total of $255.3M. Box office information obtained from boxofficemojo.com.
