This Weekend at the Box Office

This is the last weekend before Cars becomes the movie of the summer, and Over the Hedge is still holding up well . . . Per Boxofficemojo, The Break-Up (as expected) is number one, and Hedge has slipped past Da Vinci Code into third place, with X-Men in second. It's interesting to compare those numbers to last week's. Hedge shows a modest drop from last Friday, grossing $5.1 million, for a 30% decrease. Meanwhile, DVC dropped a full 50%, and X-Men sank by a whopping 70%. Of all the movies in the top 10, Hedge is the only one with decent "legs." Clearly it's gotten good word-of-mouth. It makes one wonder how well the film could have done if it had opened, say, a week ahead of DVC, and if the television advertising hadn't been put primarily in the hands of Wal-Mart. UPDATE: The weekend estimates are in, and OTH continuted in third place with $20.6 million, for a 24% drop and a $112.4 million total. X-Men 3 had a 67% drop for $34.3 million ($175.5 million total), with DVC fourth at $19.3 million (43% drop, $172.7 total). The Break-Up gave Jennifer Anniston her first movie "hit" with a $38 million opening. Interesting how in this case a $38 million opening is cause for celebration when for Hedge it was cause (at least on Wallstreet) for despair.