Box Office Report: Snakes Win, But It's Not Enough

by Martha Fischer Aug 21st 2006 // 8:05AM

Filed under: Action, Comedy, Drama, Thrillers, New Line, Universal, Box Office

First, the good news for New Line: Snakes on a Plane topped the weekend box office. Hooray! And now, the bad news: Including the take from Thursday night screenings, the movie earned slightly over $15 million, a long way from the studio's somewhat conservative estimates that the movie would make in the low $20 million range. Since a movie like this was built and relies largely on word-of-mouth, the comparatively small opening weekend is a bad sign for the upcoming weeks. While it's assured that New Line won't lose money on the project -- it only cost about $30 million to make -- it's nevertheless going to be hard for them to argue that they're not disappointed by this open, particularly given that many were guessing the weekend totals would be between $30 and 40 million.

Finishing second, barely, was Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, which took in $14.1 million in its third weekend in release, pushing the movie's total domestic earnings well past $100 million. World Trade Center was off about 40% from last weekend, and held firm in third with $10.8 million, while Accepted, Universal's major new offering, finished in the fourth spot with $10.1 million. The weekend's other major debut (and SOAP's companion in not-screen-for-critics land) was Material Girls; on about 1500 screens (roughly half Accepted's exposure), the Duff sisters festival made $4.6 million. Also worth noting is the success of Little Miss Sunshine, which continued its extraordinary box office run after adding more than 500 screens to its previously limited release. The film earned $5.7 million on an impressive $8212/screening, numbers that landed it in seventh place overall.

Full numbers are after the jump.


1. Snakes on a Plane, $15.3 million
2. Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, $14.1 million
3. World Trade Center, $10.8 million
4. Accepted, $10.1 million
5. Step Up, $9.9 million
6. Barnyard, $7.5 million
7. Little Miss Sunshine, $5.7 million
8. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, $5 million
9. Material Girls, $4.6 million
10. Pulse, $3.5 million

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Tags: Accepted, box office, cinematical, film, Little Miss Sunshine, Material Girls, movie, Snakes on a Plane, Talladega Nights, World Trade Center

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