Harry Potter Sure Isn't in Captivity

Mon., Jul. 16, 2007 1:08 PM PDT by Joal Ryan

In one of Harry Potter's neater tricks, he just about made one of the year's most notorious movies disappear.

The weekend box office, as expected, was all about Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, with the franchise's fifth installment raising $139.7 million in five days, including $77.1 million from Friday to Sunday, according to figures from Exhibitor Relations.

With two-thirds of weekend moviegoers buying tickets to either Order of the Phoenix or the still-gigantic Transformers (second place, $37 million; $224 million overall), there wasn't much disposable income, much less interest, left for Captivity.

Best known for a billboard campaign that tried, but failed, to spark audiences to its tagline (and accompanying photos of a distressed Elisha Cuthbert)—"Abduction. Confinement. Torture. Termination"—the so-called torture-porn movie opened, barely, in a relatively sparse 1,050 theaters, grossed an absolutely sparse $1.4 million, finished out of the top 10, and presumably began the wait for its unrated DVD release.

Lionsgate celebrated Captivity in a much-publicized Los Angeles premiere party, but, per newspaper critics, kept the movie itself under wraps. In the Boston Globe, reviewer Ty Burr wrote of having to commute to Danvers, Massachusetts, about 20 miles north of Boston, to catch a screening. His eventual verdict: "Wholly pointless," which was one of the more charitable blurbs for a film that scored only three positive reviews out of the 47 tracked and categorized by Sunday afternoon on Rotten Tomatoes.

Life at Hogwarts, meanwhile, was considerably brighter, even as the Potter series continued to grow ever darker.

Order of the Phoenix's five-day take was the franchise's biggest yet, although its Friday-Sunday opening-weekend gross was the smallest yet. A key mitigating factor: Order of the Phoenix was the first Potter movie to open on a Wednesday; the other four opened on Fridays.

Per usual for Potter, Order of the Phoenix has been a hit worldwide, so far taking in $190.3 million from foreign markets, according to Warner Bros., the biggest global debut for Potter film yet. All together, the reported $150 million production has taken in $330.3 million since last Wednesday.

Elsewhere, Ratatouille ate up another $18 million (third place), pushing its cumulative take to $143 million, which still makes it the caboose of Pixar-produced features, but puts it within a car's distance of A Bug's Life, which grossed $162.8 million nearly 10 years ago.

Live Free or Die Hard ($11.3 million, fourth place) moved past the vaunted $100 million mark, while License to Wed ($7.3 million, fifth place) broke the less-vaunted $30 million mark.

In its fifth weekend, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer ($1.6 million) fell out of the top 10. At $127.2 million overall, the superhero sequel looks to fall short of its predecessor, which grossed $154.7 million domestically in 2005.

In limited release, Talk to Me, Don Cheadle's pet project about 1960s-era deejay Petey Greene, got the conversation going at 33 theaters, grossing $402,000. The French comedy My Best Friend did even better, per-screen average-wise, taking in $45,246 at just three theaters.

Sienna Miller continued to maintain her low profile, on screen, at least, courtesy the Steve Buscemi-directed Interview, which made $41,016 at six theaters.

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

1. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, $77.1 million
2. Transformers, $37 million
3. Ratatouille, $18 million
4. Live Free or Die Hard, $11.3 million
5. License to Wed, $7.3 million
6. 1408, $4.93 million
7. Evan Almighty, $4.89 million
8. Knocked Up, $3.7 million
9. Sicko, $2.6 million
10. Ocean's Thirteen, $2 million

(Originally published July 15, 2007 at 2:47 p.m. PT.)