Variety reports the top 25 movies for the week of 20-26 July in terms of box office take. We’re not sure if it’s a surprise that new comedy I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry knocked Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix out of the top spot after one week. Last weekend’s release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the last book in the series, may have doomed the movie by sending Potter fans out of the theaters and into the reading rooms. At any rate, Phoenix took in $49.4 million in its second week in release, to give it a total take of $224.7 million. Another new non-genre movie, Hairspray, opened in the number three spot, pushing Transformers down from #2 to #4. It still grossed $30.6 million for a total of $273.0 million. Evan Almighty dropped from #6 to #8, taking in $4.2 million this week for a total of $95.2 million after 5 weeks in release. 1408 dropped from #7 to #9, but still managed to take in $4 million (total of $68.8 million).
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End dropped from #12 to #13, still managing $1.2 million this week, for a total of $306.5 million. Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer dropped a little faster, from #11 to #14, taking in $1.2 million (about $17,000 less than Pirates), bringing its total up to $129.3 million. Shrek the Third is still hanging around, dropping from #15 to #17. This week it grossed $650 thousand, bringing its 10-week total to $319.2 million.
New (sort of) release Sunshine drew a pretty bad review from Variety in April, right around the time it opened worldwide. The film’s US distributor, however (according to the review) decided to hold the release until mid-September. This week, however, Variety found it in 10 theaters, where it managed to take in a little more than $360 thousand (good for #24 on the list).
[Edited 1 August 2007 to note that artist Bob Eggleton disagrees with that bad review. He thinks Sunshine “may be one of the best ‘hard’ SF pictures I have seen in a long time.” His review is at this link.]