January 6-8, 2006
THTRS = Number of Screens
* Denotes new release.
Click on title to read CB Review
| 1. | Hostel * |
| $20,100,000 - Total: $20,100,000 | |
| LW: N WR: 1 THTRS: 2195 |
| 2. | The Chronicles of Narnia:The Lion, The Witch,and The Wardrobe |
| $15,427,000 - Total: $247,561,000 | |
| LW: 1 WR: 5 THTRS: 3514 |
| 3. | King Kong |
| $12,466,000 - Total: $192,522,000 | |
| LW: 2 WR: 4 THTRS: 3482 |
| 4. | Fun with Dick and Jane |
| $12,200,000 - Total: $81,359,000 | |
| LW: 3 WR: 3 THTRS: 3182 |
| 5. | Cheaper by the Dozen 2 |
| $8,300,000 - Total: $66,421,000 | |
| LW: 4 WR: 3 THTRS: 3108 |
| 6. | Munich |
| $7,455,000 - Total: $25,239,000 | |
| LW: 10 WR: 3 THTRS: 1485 |
| 7. | Memoirs of a Geisha |
| $6,000,000 - Total: $39,751,000 | |
| LW: 7 WR: 5 THTRS: 1589 |
| 8. | Rumor Has It |
| $5,881,000 - Total: $35,370,000 | |
| LW: 5 WR: 3 THTRS: 2766 |
| 9. | Brokeback Mountain |
| $5,750,000 - Total: $22,460,000 | |
| LW: 14 WR: 5 THTRS: 483 |
| 10. | The Family Stone |
| $4,625,000 - Total: $53,193,000 | |
| LW: 6 WR: 4 THTRS: 2085 |
There were only three new movies out in wide release this weekend. None of them were worth getting excited over. America got excited anyway and turned out to see Eli Roth's frightening horror flick Hostel, but nobody really bothered to see Grandma's Boy, or Uwe Boll's BloodRayne.
These days Quentin Tarentino is only interested in two things: gore and martial arts. After combining his love for both into his last film project Kill Bill, he has engaged in promoting other movies that are either big on one or the other. Hostel has nothing to do with martial arts, so you can guess which way it swings. It seemed to catch the American eye and became the first movie in a month to dethrone The Chronicles of Narnia and King Kong.
If you were looking for a quiet place this weekend all you needed to do was find a theater showing Grandma's Boy. It opened in approximately the same number of theaters as Hostel but didn't even bring in enough money to place in the top ten (it came in at a very lucky number 13 with around $3 million).
Uwe Boll's latest effort, BloodRayne, is an embarrassment all around, coming in at number 19 with only $1.2 million. The only remotely positive review it's received comes from a web site predominantly focued on comics, Hero Realm. It's praise? "With BLOODRAYNE he’s [Uwe Boll] created the perfect video game to film adaptation, complete with level bosses and magical power-ups." That's not exactly setting the bar very high.
Brokeback Mountain's distributor has slowly been increasing the number of theaters where the movie is showing. This weekend they went all the way up to 483 screens which is pretty close to the number of awards nominations the movie has received. Now in its fifth week of release it's managed to finally sneak back into the top ten. Three weeks ago it made a brief appearance and then vanished under a pile of holiday releases. It will be interesting to see if the common folk find the film as exciting as the groups handing out awards nominations or if Brokeback will once again disappear when the novelty of the controversy/hype wears off.
