This is for the 4 day Labor Day weekend, rather than the normal 3 day period. I don't think any of the places would be any different for the 3 day.
The top 4 placers this week represent a couple of nice summer ending finds, an early Oscar contender, and an over the top action fest which was a blast to watch. I have seen all 4 of them and can attest that they are all worth seeing, depending on what you may be in the mood for of course.
Transporter 2 was surprisingly strong out the gate, becoming the best Labor Day weekend opener ever, exceeding expectations. It made more than double the original did upon it's opening, and I think that is a testament to the power of word of mouth and home video. Also doing well in it's first weekend was The Constant Gardener, which was absolutely amazing.
The 40 Year Old Virgin continued to do well, coming in second, as well as Red Eye. A couple of late summer surprises. And continuing to show strong returns on long screen runs, Wedding Crashers looks set to cross the $200 million mark in the next week or so, and March of the Penguins continues to look good. It's nice to see some of the good films get their rightful attention, maybe one day all the worthy films will get their due attention.
Now for some non-Top 10 notes. Showing rather dismal takes in their opening weekends are Underclassman and A Sound of Thunder. I have only seen the second, and can attest to it being a poor film. Thunder wins the race to the back of the newcomer pack, crash landing at 17th with less than $1.2 million.
| This Week | Last Week | Title | Wknd Gross | Overall | Week in release |
| 1 | N | Transporter 2 | $20,104,608 | $20,104,608 | 1 |
| 2 | 1 | The 40 Year Old Virgin | $16,535,700 | $71,886,455 | 3 |
| 3 | N | The Constant Gardener | $10,961,311 | $10,961,311 | 1 |
| 4 | 3 | Red Eye | $9,438,230 | $45,517,427 | 3 |
| 5 | 2 | The Brothers Grimm | $9,025,597 | $28,725,497 | 2 |
| 6 | 4 | Four Brothers | $6,366,088 | $64,352,755 | 3 |
| 7 | 6 | Wedding Crashers | $5,825,100 | $195,801,693 | 8 |
| 8 | 7 | March of the Penguins | $5,561,872 | $63,566,739 | 11 |
| 9 | 8 | The Skeleton Key | $4,043,120 | $43,779,225 | 4 |
| 10 | 5 | The Cave | $3,764,249 | $11,778,458 | 2 |
Article comments
1 - Jesse
Solid opening for The Constant Gardener, since it played about half as many theaters as Transporter 2. I hope this does well over the long haul, because middle America needs to see this. Great film.