Well, the blurb writers will be happy.

Going into the Fourth of July holiday, Disney will be able to rightly call Pixar's Ratatouille the "nation's No. 1 movie." And Fox will be able to correctly declare Live Free or Die Hard the "biggest-opening Die Hard ever."

But, relatively speaking, the tallies at the weekend box office were a little less impressive than all that.

Ratatouille was indeed atop the heap, with $47million, per studio figures—a strong tally for the CGI tale of a gourmet-inclined rodent. But when judged against previous Pixar entries, the movie just didn't score the big cheese.

Only two of the animation giant's eight previous features failed to open with at least $50 million, and one of those two, Toy Story, was released 12 years ago when the average ticket price was only $4.35, compared to today's $6.55ish. Last summer's Cars kicked off its run with $60.1 million.

As for Live Free or Die Hard, it debuted in second place with $33.4 million. The previous tops for the 19-year-old Bruce Willis action franchise was the $22.2 million posted by Die Hard With a Vengeance, which was released, yes, 12 cheaper years ago, and carried the more restrictive R rating, unlike Live Free or Die Hard's more family friendly PG-13.

All told, the fourth installment in the good-cop-against-the-bad-world saga has taken in $48.2 million since opening last Wednesday. Per Box Office Mojo stats, its first-day tally of $9.1 million put Live Free or Die Hard in 38th place on the list of all-time Wednesday openers. (Pity the blurb writer who would be asked to make something of that factoid.)

In a summer of sequels, Live Free or Die Hard is quite a few steps up from 28 Weeks Later, which opened with $9.8 million, and quite a few miles away from Spider-Man 3, which opened with $151.1 million.

Sicko, the weekend's other major new release, which wasn't really new since it played at one theater last weekend, and wasn't really afforded a "major" release since it only played 441 theaters, did better than the healthcare system the Michael Moore documentary examined. Of course, that's a fairly low standard.

Compared to Moore's previous docs, Sicko's $4.5 million take (ninth place) was merely okay. While no one, least of all its director, expected another Fahrenheit 9/11 blockbuster, its per-screen average ($10,204—second best of the weekend, behind Ratatouille) was the weakest-ever for a Moore film, save 1995's little-seen The Big One, about corporate downsizing.

That said, Sicko took in more in one weekend than acclaimed documentaries such as Capturing the Friedmans, Crumb and When We Were Kings grossed during their entire runs.

Elsewhere, Evan Almighty would love to have the relative concerns of Ratatouille, Live Free or Die Hard and Sicko. Instead, it's got a real problem: Its budget (a reported $175 million) is still way bigger than its gross (a cumulative $60.7 million).

Any notion that the ark-building family comedy would slowly, but surely endear itself to audiences was dashed as Evan Almighty fell quickly, and soundly, down 51 percent from its underwhelming opening weekend ($15.1 million, third place).

Among other top 10 holdovers, the ride appeared just about over for Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (fifth place, $9.1 million—down 54 percent; $114.9 million overall) and Ocean's Thirteen (seventh place, $7.3 million—down 47 percent; $102.1 million overall)

Shrek the Third ($2.7 million) was out of the top 10 after a six-week stay; its predecessor, 2004's Shrek 2, hung around for 10 weeks. Still, the latest sequel has done its job, coming up with $313.7 million overall.

The CGI comedy Surf's Up ($2.4 million; $53.8 million overall) fell out of the top 10 after three weeks. While Nancy Drew ($1.9 million; $21.2 million overall) and Angelina Jolie's A Mighty Heart ($1.6 million; $7 million overall) were gone after three and two weeks, respectively.

In its first weekend, the drama Evening took up residence in the upper ranks, barely, finishing 10th and grossing just $3.5 million at 977 theaters.

Here's a rundown of the top 10 films based on final Friday-Sunday studio tallies compiled by Exhibitor Relations:

1. Ratatouille, $47 million
2. Live Free or Die Hard, $33.4 million
3. Evan Almighty, $15.1 million
4. 1408, $10.7 million
5. Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, $9.1 million
6. Knocked Up, $7.3 million
7.Ocean's Thirteen, $6.1 million
8. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, $5 million
9. Sicko, $4.5 million
10. Evening, $3.5 million

(Originally published July 1, 2007 at 5:47 p.m. PT.)