‘Nemo’ Furiously Takes Back Box Office
LOS ANGELES (AP) √≥ Cartoon fish still have audiences hooked as the undersea adventure “Finding Nemo” regained the top spot at the weekend box office with $29.2 million.
The previous weekend’s top movie, “2 Fast 2 Furious,” fell to No. 2 in its second weekend with $19.1 million, according to studio estimates Sunday. Another holdover movie, “Bruce Almighty,” was third with $14.2 million.
New flicks had soft openings. The animated “Rugrats Go Wild,” which blends the Nickelodeon “Rugrats” and “Wild Thornberrys” cartoon franchises, took in $12.5 million to debut at No. 4.
Harrison Ford and Josh Hartnett’s buddy-cop comedy “Hollywood Homicide” opened in fifth place with $11.7 million. The idiot-buddy prequel “Dumb and Dumberer: When Harry Met Lloyd” debuted at No. 6 with $11.1 million.
Lacking a strong new movie, the overall box office was down after two straight up weekends. The top 12 movies grossed $118.6 million, off 24 percent from the same weekend last year, when “Scooby-Doo” opened with $54.2 million.
Theater business is expected to heat up again this weekend with the comic-book adaptation “Hulk.” “Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle” arrives a week later, followed by “Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines” and “Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde” over Fourth of July weekend.
“It’s been a summer of fits and starts, a couple of weekends up then down the next,” said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Exhibitor Relations. “There’s no question that over the next few weeks, starting with `Hulk,’ we’re going to see a resurgence.”
The Disney-Pixar collaboration “Finding Nemo,” which had a No. 1 debut and a record opening for an animated movie two weekends ago before falling to second place last week, has raised its total domestic gross to $192.3 million in 17 days of release.
“Finding Nemo” features the voices of Albert Brooks, Ellen DeGeneres, Willem Dafoe and Geoffrey Rush in a tale of a father fish out to rescue his aquarium-bound son.
“It’s poetic justice that a movie about a father and a son would be the No. 1 movie of Father’s Day weekend,” said Chuck Viane, Disney head of distribution.
Viane said “Finding Nemo” should top $200 million in its 20th day of release, 10 days faster than the last Disney-Pixar flick, “Monsters, Inc.”
The new movie also should pass the total “Monsters” gross of $255.9 million to become the top moneymaker of the five Disney-Pixar films, Viane said. Previous Disney-Pixar films were the “Toy Story” movies and “A Bug’s Life.”
Revenues for the street-racing sequel “2 Fast 2 Furious” tumbled 62 percent from its $50.5 million debut a weekend earlier. Starring Paul Walker, “2 Fast 2 Furious” has grossed $84 million in 10 days.
Here are the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at North American theaters, according to Exhibitor Relations Co. Inc. Final figures will be released Monday.
1. “Finding Nemo,” $29.2 million.
2. “2 Fast 2 Furious,” $19.1 million.
3. “Bruce Almighty,” $14.2 million.
4. “Rugrats Go Wild,” $12.5 million
5. “Hollywood Homicide,” $11.7 million.
6. “Dumb and Dumberer: When Harry Met Lloyd,” $11.1 million.
7. “The Italian Job,” $9.5 million.
8. “The Matrix Reloaded,” $5.5 million.
9. “Daddy Day Care,” $2.1 million.
10. “X2: X-Men United,” $1.6 million.
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