Paul Giamatti (Cleveland Heep) and Bryce Dallas Howard (Story) star in the mystical fantasy 'Lady In The Water' - CONTRIBUTED PHOTOS
LOS ANGELES (Reuters):
WALT DISNEY Co.'s Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest logged a third weekend as the most popular movie in North America while the latest films from directors M. Night Shyamalan and Ivan Reitman both bombed, according to studio estimates issued yesterday.
The monster swashbuckler Pirates earned US$35 million, comfortably ahead of Sony Corp.'s animated creepfest Monster House, which exceeded expectations with a US$23 million debut.
Shyamalan's mystical fantasy Lady in the Water followed at No. 3 with US$18.2 million, while Reitman's romantic comedy My Super Ex-Girlfriend was No. 7 with US$8.7 million. A fourth new release, director Kevin Smith's Clerks II was No. 6 with US$9.6 million, broadly in line with expectations.
The total for Pirates sped to US$321.7 million. It set a record for a film to reach US$300 million -- 16 days. The old mark of 17 days was set last year by Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge Of The Sith. The last movie to enjoy a three-weekend stretch at No. 1 was the November 2005 release Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.
The performances of Pirates and Lady In The Water represent a double victory for Disney, which chose not to release Lady In The Water after distributing Shyamalan's previous three big movies. Disney last week ousted Shyamalan's nemesis, studio chief Nina Jacobson, in a major revamp that will see 650 people lose their jobs as the studio focuses more on family pictures.
The dubious honour of distributing Lady In The Water instead went to Time Warner Inc.'s Warner Bros. Pictures, which has endured a challenging summer, beginning with Poseidon (box office returns of US$60 million), and continuing with the costly Superman Returns (US$178 million to date), and The Lake House (US$51 million).
STALLED
Shyamalan's last movie, The Village, opened to US$50 million in 2004 and stalled at US$114 million - half of what 2002's Signs finished with. Shyamalan's 1999 breakthrough, The Sixth Sense, earned US$293.5 million.
His new film revolves around a water nymph (Bryce Dallas Howard) who inhabits a swimming pool in an apartment complex. It received a critical pasting that got personal at times. The New York Post described Shyamalan as "a crackpot with a messianic delusions." Even his home town newspaper, the Philadelphia Inquirer, said the movie was "extremely silly."
Warner Bros. said it had hoped for an opening in the mid-US$20 million range. It cost over US$50 million to make. The studio's distribution president, Dan Fellman, said the movie did well on the coasts but "definitely had some difficulties" elsewhere.
My Super Ex-Girlfriend, which received only marginally better reviews than Lady In The Water, marked Reitman's first directing effort since the 2001 flop Evolution. Starring Uma Thurman as a needy superhero, it was distributed by News Corp.'s 20th Century Fox, which had hoped for an opening in the
mid-teens.
Box office
The top movies at the weekend North American box office:
1 (1) Pirates of the Caribbean:Dead Man's Chest - US$35 million
2 () Monster House
- US$23 million
3 () Lady in the Water
- US$18.2 million
4 (3) You, Me and Dupree
- US$12.8 million
5 (2) Little Man - US$11 million
6 () Clerks II - US$9.6 million
7 () My Super Ex-Girlfriend
- US$8.7 million
8 (4) Superman Returns
- US$7.5 million
9 (5) The Devil Wears Prada
- US$7.4 million
10 (6) Cars - US$ 4.9 million
NOTE: Last weekend's rankings in parentheses.denotes new release.
