The weekend was ruled by the boy wizard. The fifth Potter film, Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix, easily topped the box office with its take just north of $77 million. It replaced the rock'em sock'em robots that sat at the top last week.
It actually opened midweek, where it began by setting a Wednesday record taking in over $44 million. The series is going stronger than ever with its second shot at the summer. The movie itself was actually pretty good, easily better than The Goblet of Fire, at least in my estimation. I suspect that it will have a strong second week as well, possibly retaining the top spot.
Harry Potter was the only new film to enter the top ten. The other lone wide release, Captivity, failed to make much of a splash, finishing in twelfth place. The little bit of attention garnered from the poster controversy from earlier this year failed to help it at the box office. It even had its planned 1500 theater opening slashed to a little over 1000.
Unfortunately, that cut took it out of my town completely, though they claim that it will arrive next week. Time will tell if I get to see if it is as bad as most seem to think it is.
As for the rest of the top ten, it was mostly strong from top to bottom with many of the films making strong showings. Transformers suffered the biggest blow, but even it held onto more than half of last week's take. Not bad, considering the sizable dips that the big three thirds had in their second frames back in May. That is a good sign for the movie, it looks like it will have no problems cracking the $300 million mark. With talk that the second and third outings have already been greenlit, the future is bright for Michael Bay and the newly formed film franchise.
The best hold among the returners was Michael Moore's healthcare expose Sicko, slipping less than 28%. Say what you will about him or his work, he is the only filmmaker who can open a documentary on a wide scale. Not that many have gotten the chance at such a title, but the fact remains.
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