We’re into what’s known as the dog days of summer – autumn is around the corner, and the blockbuster movie season has gasped its last. The parade of Oscar-hungry prestige titles can be heard over the hill, but there was still time for Superbad to grab a second healthy weekend at the top of the charts across the pond, adding $18 million for a total of $68.6 million. It looks certain to cross $100 million shortly.
Also holding up well was The Bourne Ultimatum, which stayed in second despite being in its fourth week of release. The film has nabbed $185 million so far. Rush Hour 3 also clung to last week’s position, staying in third for $11.7 million and crossing the $100 million mark itself.
In fourth place we find the most successful new arrival of the week – Mr Bean’s Holiday, which crept rather quietly into US cinemas (he just doesn’t have quite the same appeal over here and managed to take in $9.89 million. That put it just ahead – but only just – of the new Jason Statham/Jet Li action nonsense War, which made $9.82 million for a disappointing fifth place launch, and that was despite being in nearly 500 more cinemas than Bean.
Even the idea of Scarlett Johansson as the world’s sexiest child care-giver couldn’t scare up much interest, particularly with the predicted female audiences. It flopped into sixth place and made $7.4 million, though with a relatively lower budget than some of the bigger movies, it’s not in such a hurry to make its money back.
In seventh, The Simpson Movie continues to perform well, sneaking up to a $173.3 million total to date, while in eighth, Stardust rides some decent word of mouth to make a little more cash, taking in $3.2 million and having made $26 million so far, which means it’s still a long way from healthy but stands a chance of having its international take boost its coffers.
And so to the bottom of the charts, where at ninth Hairspray is still bringing them in, with a running account of $107.2 million and The Invasion begins its plummet from the charts, having made a paltry $11 million so far.
