"T3" Rises Over Reese

Hasta la vista, Reese.

Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines rose to the top of the Fourth of July box office, nearly doubling the take of the holiday-colored Legally Blonde: Red, White & Blonde.

Arnold Schwarzenegger's long-awaited return as everyone's favorite killing machine grossed $44 million while Reese Witherspoon's bubblegum comedy only managed to pick up $22.2 million in second place, according to final studio figures released Monday.

Both movies officially debuted Wednesday to take advantage of the long weekend (although T3 earned some extra dough from Tuesday night sneaks)--since opening, the cyborg sequel has tallied $72.4 million to LB2's decidedly unperky $38.5 million.

The weekend's other major film, DreamWorks' Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas, got swamped by Finding Nemo. The animated sailor man was beached in sixth place with just $6.9 million as the kiddie crowd much preferred Disney-Pixar's spunky fish tale, which finished the Friday-Sunday weekend in fourth place with $11 million--a million more than Sinbad totaled since opening Wednesday.

Schwarzenegger, whose T3 paycheck reportedly approached $30 million (the whole film cost a whopping $150 million), was back in a big way after a string of duds. T3's haul marked a personal best for the possible gubernatorial candidate, topping the $42.8 million open of 1997's Batman & Robin, in which he costarred as Mr. Freeze. T3 also opened about 40 percent better than Terminator 2: Judgment Day's $31.8 million in 1991--although factoring in the higher cost of admission these days, fewer tickets were sold this time out.

The Warners release, which also stars Nick Stahl, Kristanna Loken and Claire Danes, powered in with the second-best opening ever for an R-rated movie, though way behind the $91.8 million debut of The Matrix Reloaded earlier this year. Ah-nuld's big comeback registered fourth on the list of strongest Fourth of July weekend openers, behind Men in Black II ($52.1 million), Men in Black ($51 million) and Independence Day ($50.2 million), all of which were rated PG-13. (The R-rated Terminator 2, which now registers sixth on that list, has reached an overall gross of $204.8 million.)

The per-screen average for T3 was $12,569 at 3,504 sites.

Meanwhile, the PG-13 LB2, the follow-up to Witherspoon's successful 2001 romantic comedy about a smart glamour-girl attorney and her teeny little doggie, did about $2 million more that its predecessor's opening tally. The MGM release, costarring Sally Field, Luke Wilson and Bob Newhart, averaged $6,633 at 3,350 sites

DreamWorks' PG-rated Sinbad, featuring the voices of Brad Pitt, Joseph Fiennes, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Michelle Pfeiffer and Dennis Haysbert, averaged a waterlogged $2,228 at 3,086 locations.

In contrast, Pixar's hugely successful (and G-rated) Nemo, featuring the voices of Albert Brooks, Ellen DeGeneres, Barry Humphries and Alexander Gould, swam on contentedly, dropping just 18 percent and one place from the previous week. It has now lapped up a giant $274.9 million, making it the top-grossing film of this year, passing The Matrix Reloaded's $271.9 million.

But bad news continued to plague Hollywood's big-budget fantasies.

Last week's top movie, Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle, flat out stalled. The butt-kicking chicks were down 63 percent to third place, earning only $14 million at 3,485 sites, 26 screens more than last weekend. CA2 has now grossed just $67.1 million. Meantime, The Hulk, which last week had suffered a mammoth drop-off from its fairly big opening, fell sharply again. Down to fifth place from second, the green goliath suffered a 56 percent decline, earning only $8.2 million at 3,291 sites.

Consequently it was another down weekend for the overall box office, according to Exhibitor Relations, off nearly 9 percent from last year, when Men in Black II set its record. But this weekend's top 12 movies collected $126.9 million, up about 13 percent from last weekend.

Not in that top 12, but opening well at just 13 sites, was Swimming Pool. Focus Features' sexy crime drama, starring Charlotte Rampling and Ludivine Sagnier, earned $286,950 for a $22,073 per-screen average.

Here's how the top 10 films stacked up for the Friday to Sunday period:

1. Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, $44 million
2. Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde, $22.2 million
3. Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle, $14 million
4. Finding Nemo, $11.5 million
5. The Hulk, $8.2 million
6. Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas, $6.9 million
7. 28 Days Later, $6 million
8. The Italian Job, $4.2 million
9. Bruce Almighty, $4 million
10. 2 Fast 2 Furious, $2.6 million

(Originally published June 6, 2003 at 3:55 p.m. PT.)