Borat Bountiful; A Good Year Not

Borat continues its glorious reign.

Although Sacha Baron Cohen's Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan may be taboo in Russia and ire-inspiring to its accidental stars, the outrageous comedy continued to be very warmly embraced by America at large.

Opening nationwide this weekend, after proving very, very hot during one week of limited release, the R-rated Fox film topped the box office with an estimated $29 million, bringing its two-week gross to $67.8 million.

Ecstatic over a marketing plan that appears to have worked "exactly the way we hoped," Fox's distribution honcho, Bruce Snyder, exclaimed, "It's a great hold. It's a wonderful story. It's a kick!"

It was actually even better than a great hold. The wildly satirical mockumentary's expansion to 2,566 sites from a limited 837 locations created a gain of 10 percent on the previous week, with an average gross of $11,302 per screen.

The film's success isn't sitting well with two college students featured in the film, who have sued 20th Century Fox and three production companies, claiming they were encouraged to drink and make outrageous statements and were misled as to what their roles in the film would be. Other citizens duped into appearing in the film have also expressed anger and humiliation over how they were portrayed. 

After spilling the good news, Snyder revealed the bad: Fox's new PG-13 release, A Good Year, had a very bad opening. The critically trashed romantic comedy—director Ridley Scott's adaptation of Peter Mayle's popular novel—stars Russell Crowe as a cool-hearted investment banker who turns emotional when he inherits a French vineyard. It proved sour vinegar instead of vintage wine with a 10th place debut and a measly $3.7 million in ticket sales. (This is especially woeful considering when Crowe and Scott worked together on Gladiator in 2000, the historical epic debuted as the top movie with $34.8 million and went on to achieve a theatrical gross of $187.6 million.)

Aimed at a mature audience ripe for intelligent romance, Snyder admitted A Good Year was a film that would have benefited from good reviews rather than the harsh savaging it received. Those who ignored the critics and saw the film were 64 percent female, 88 percent were over 25, and indeed even older—53 percent of the audience was reportedly over 50. Apparently, Crowe, an action man given to throwing things at people who displease him, doesn't cut it as a romantic figure.

Critics were kinder to Will Ferrell's attempt to cut back on his usual antics in the metaphysical comedy Stranger than Fiction, as a repressed, sad-sack taxman whose life is ruled by a persistent disembodied female voice in his head. Audiences were more enthusiastic, too. The PG-13 Sony release, directed by Marc Forster and costarring Emma Thompson, Dustin Hoffman, Queen Latifah and Maggie Gyllenhaal, was the most successful of the three new entries that opened in wide release. Arriving in fourth place at 2,264 locations, it wrote up $14.1 million for a $6,228-per-screen average.

The third new widely released flick, horror mystery The Return, starring Sarah Michelle Gellar, slipped into 1,984 sites, where the PG-13 Focus/Rogue release scared up only $4.7 million for a $2,407-per-screen average.

In more limited release, Harsh Times, an offbeat crime drama starring Christian Bale and Eva Longoria, opened at 956 sites, where the R-rated MGM release earned $1.8 million for a $1,913-per-screen average.

In very limited release, MGM's PG-13 Copying Beethoven, starring Ed Harris as the deaf composer, scored $72,000 at 26 sites for a $2,769-per-screen average, and IDP's R-rated Come Early Morning, starring Ashley Judd as a thirtysomething with guy and drink problems, dawned with $51,700 at 22 sites for a $2,350-per-screen average.

Moving into 1,251 sites after playing in very limited release, Babel jumped from 20th to sixth place in its third week, which was a gain of 515 percent. The R-rated Paramount Vantage multiple-story drama, with a multistar, international cast headed by Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett and Gael García Bernal, earned $5.6 million for a $4,517-per-screen average to bring its current gross to $7.4 million.

Behind Borat's firm hold, there were also no changes from the previous week in the second and third slots. Disney's G-rated family-fare sequel, The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause, in which Tim Allen's conscripted Santa and Martin Short's eager Jack Frost squabble over the holiday season, sacked up another $16.8 million. It remained in second place in its second week at 3,458 sites, where it averaged $4,885. That was a drop of only 13 percent, stuffing its two-week gross to an estimated $41 million. 

Dropping even less, by just 11 percent, Paramount's PG-rated and favorably reviewed cute vermin cartoon Flushed Away stayed in third place for a second week. It remained at 3,707 sites, where it averaged $4,508 per screen for $16.7 million and clogged up a two-week gross estimated at $39.9 million.

Overall, it was another up weekend—as is the year to date—in which overall grosses have so far reached $7.99 billion, up 6.4 percent over this time last year.

Here are the current estimates for the top 10 films, as reported by industry tracker Exhibitor Relations, Inc.

1. Borat, $29 million
2. The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause, $16.8 million
3. Flushed Away, $16.7 million
4. Stranger than Fiction, $14.1 million
5. Saw III, $6.6 million
6. Babel, $5.6 million
7. The Departed, $5.2 million
8. The Return, $4.7 million
9. The Prestige, $4.6 million
10. A Good Year, $3.7 million