Adam Sandler controls the US box office

Proving that he’s still got crowd-winning appeal, Adam Sandler’s Click slipped into the top spot this weekend with $40 million at the American box office according to studio estimates. It’s Sandler’s sixth number one opening and in terms of actual earning power, ranks fourth in his own all-time list.

Cars took second, but the Pixar bods won’t have anything to complain about, with the movie dropping only 33% this weekend for a healthy running tally of $155 million in the US alone. With a pack of international releases still waiting to happen (including the UK) thanks to the World Cup, expect this one to keep raking in the dosh for some time.

Third was Nacho Libre, which slipped rather badly, getting a stranglehold on just $12.1 million. Performing much more impressively was Tyrese’s latest outing, modern-day Bonnie & Clyde drama Waist Deep. While its launch total of $9.4 million may not sound all that impressive, consider that it opened in just 1,004 cinemas in the US, around 2,500 less than the bigger films it was up against.

It raced (har har) past The Fast And The Furious: Tokyo Drift in fifth, which stalled in its second weekend with just $9.2 million. It looks like F&F3 just didn’t have the petrol in its tank to keep going after that first burst.

Lower down, The Lake House dropped quietly to sixth, managing $8.3 million and totalling $29 million so far. Doing better in the romance stakes was The Break-Up at seventh, which this week crossed the $100 million mark to $103 million. Garfield 2 squatted at eighth, making $4.7 million. With $16 million in the kitty so far, the sequel has still earned less than the first film grabbed in its opening weekend. If this means no Garfield 3, we’re delighted.

Still, Fox won’t worry too much. They have X-Men: The Last Stand sitting pretty as 2006’s top earner to date. The movie made $4.4 million this weekend and currently has $224 million in the bank in the US alone.

Finally, there’s The Da Vinci Code about to leave the charts, which sucked in $4 million and is also rather healthy, what with $205 million in the US and several gazillion overseas….