Box Office blah blah

We were thinking of skipping our usual weekend box office tracking, since there didn't seem to be much animation news to be found, but then I read Animation Magazine's report that Monster House will be in fairly wide sneaks this Saturday . . . Apparently the Sony film will be on 712 theaters, bucking the onslaught of Pirates 2 and trying to get noticed. No doubt the pirate film will completely dominate the weekend box office, but in the long run I expect Monster House to be one of the major hits among the remaining animated films of 2006. The mo-cap still has a ways to go for me, but it looks like a good film, and I think it'll hit with the audience. A Scanner Darkly is going wider, but will still be in very limited release (216 theaters). Cars should stay in the top ten, despite new competition from some abysmally reviewed live-action releases, while Hedge and Ice Age 2 are pretty much played out. As always, updates and analysis will follow . . . UPDATE 1: As expected, Friday was all about the pirates, with POTC 2 grossing around $19 million, more than the new releases combined. The film is up to $215 million already, just passing Cars, which added another $2 million and now stands at $214. So much for those who predicted after the weaker-than-expected opening that Cars might not hit $200 million domestic. UPDATE 2: POTC 2 posted the third biggest second weekend ever, taking $62 million (a 54% drop). In 10 days it stands at $258 million. Cars took sixth with another $7 million (a 30% drop) for approximately $220 million. POTC 2 is already the top domestic movie of the year, and Cars will soon be number two (X-Men 3 stands at $231.8 million). A Scanner Darkly moved up to 10th on 217 screens, earning about $1.2 million. No word of how Monster House did in it's sneaks (I recall that grosses from sneak previews are usually counted towards the grosses of the displaced movie, so the box office sites may never have that data). I was going to check the film out Saturday night, but was lured away by the annual Glendale Cruise Night Car Show, where I saw a bunch of animators, as well as a sweet Carmen Ghia restored by Eric Daniels and his son.