Those sea dogs have strong legs.
The Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest crew again absconded with the bulk of the weekend box-office booty, with nearly triple the haul of either of its closet competitors, the new comedies Little Man and You, Me and Dupree.
Dead Man's Chest packed in another $62.3 million--a whopping 42 percent of all weekend ticket sales for the top 12 films, according to Exhibitor Relations. Although its receipts were down 54 percent from its record-destroying opening weekend, the Johnny Depp-powered scalawag sequel still averaged $15,085 per site at 4,133 sites, best among all films in wide release.
By Thursday it had set another milestone, topping Spider-Man 2's seven-day opening gross, and by Friday it had also ousted the comic book hero sequel from the top eight-day score. Dead Man's Chest has now grossed $258.4 million.
Meanwhile, in a photo finish, the Wayans brothers' Little Man was slightly bigger than the Owen Wilson-fronted You, Me and Dupree, according to final studio figures Monday.
The former, a PG-13 Sony release starring Marlon as the titular pint-sized con and Shawn as his foil, and directed by Keenen Ivory, tallied $21.6 million, or 14.4 percent of the weekend ticket sales. The latter, a PG-13 Universal release starring Wilson as the imposing houseguest of newlyweds Kate Hudson and Matt Dillon, pulled in $21.5 million, accounting for 14.3 percent of the Friday-Sunday box-office take.
But in the per-screen race, it wasn't close. Little Man, playing at 2,533 sites, averaged $8,533; You, Me and Dupree unspooled in 3,131 theaters, where it averaged only $6,875. In any case, both studios claimed the results were better than expected.
The animated sci-fi drug story A Scanner Darkly expanded from its very limited opening to 216 screens, averaging $5,863 for $1.3 million. That brings its 10-day gross to $1.9 million.
Although the buccaneers continued to run amok and the two newbies had solid debuts, there didn't seem to be too much else out there audiences wanted to see. After eight straight up weekends compared to last year, the top 12 movies grossed $150.1 million, an understandable drop of 28 percent from last weekend's record Pirates opening, but also 4 percent down from this time last year when Depp's family film Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Wilson's comedy Wedding Crashers opened with a strong one-two combo.
Here's a rundown of the Top 10 films from Friday to Sunday, based on studio tallies compiled by Exhibitor Relations:
1. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, $62.3 million
2. Little Man, $21.6 million
3. You, Me and Dupree, $21.5 million
4. Superman Returns, $12.3 million
5. The Devil Wears Prada, $10.4 million
6. Cars, $7.8 million
7. Click, $7.3 million
8. The Lake House, $1.7 million
9. Nacho Libre, $1.6 million
10. A Scanner Darkly, $1.3 million
(Originally published July 16, 2005 at 1:55 p.m. PT.)