Weekend Box Office (September 5 - 7, 2003)

by Sujit Chawla

THIS WEEKEND Dozens of people walked slowly to the box office this weekend as Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star muscled its way to the top of the charts. Overall the box office plummeted to the lowest totals of the year with the top ten grossing a mere $46.2M over the three days.

Paramount will sure to be touting Dickie Roberts as the number one movie in America for the rest of the week, as the David Spade comedy took in $6.7M, according to final studio figures, over the depressed post-Labor Day weekend. Its per screen average of $3,288 was tops in the top ten, but with poor reviews and bigger films being released over the next couple of weeks, expect the former child star to end his run with around $20M.

Falling 57% from last weekend's three-day total was the MGM horror sequel Jeepers Creepers 2, which scared up $6.6M. Its total now stands at $27.3M. Staying solidily in third place was the Johnny Depp adventure Pirates of the Caribbean, which swashbuckled its way to another $5.3M. Its total of $281.8M puts it at number 19 on the all-time list, just ahead of this summer's The Matrix Reloaded. At the start of the summer, no one would have believed that both a talking fish and a pirate film would have surpassed Neo and company at the box office.

Another film with strong staying power landed in fourth place this week as the Disney body-switching comedy Freaky Friday brought in $5M this weekend, bringing its total to $97.1M. It should cross the century mark by next weekend. Rounding out the top 5 was the action-adventure S.W.A.T, which made $4.6M bringing its total to $108.8M.

The other new film opening this weekend was the Brian Helgeland/Heath Ledger collaboration, The Order. The supernatural thriller which finds Ledger playing a priest who investigates Sin Eaters, took in $4.4M this weekend, for a per screen average of a sad $2,248. Look for The Order to disappear from radar screens quickly, and land on the video shelves before the end of the year.

The rest of the top ten featured films, all successful in their own right. At number seven was the Kevin Costner western, Open Range which made $4.2M this weekend, bringing its total to a very solid $49.3M. In 8th place was the Oscar bait horse racing film Seabiscuit, which raced up another $3.7M bringing its total to a robust $109.6M.

In 9th place was the battle of the horror heavyweights, Freddy vs. Jason which fought its way to another $3.2M, bringing its total to a horrifying $78.3M. And closing out the top ten was the Brittany Murphy/Dakota Fanning comedy Uptown Girls which took in $2.5M, bringing its total to $33.6M.

Compared to projections, both Dickie Roberts and The Order came in slightly below Gitesh's predictions of $8M and $6M respectively.

For reviews of Pirates of the Caribbean and Where's The Party Yaar? visit The Chief Report.

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# Title Sep 5 - 7 Aug 29 - 31 % Chg. Theaters Weeks AVG Cumulative Distributor
1 Dickie Roberts $ 6,660,540 2,026 1 $ 3,288 $ 6,660,540 Paramount
2 Jeepers Creepers 2 6,562,008 15,269,324 -57.0 3,124 2 2,101 27,282,853 MGM
3 Pirates of the Caribbean 5,271,528 7,970,162 -33.9 2,203 9 2,393 281,831,452 Buena Vista
4 Freaky Friday 5,040,247 9,220,256 -45.3 2,973 5 1,695 97,082,820 Buena Vista
5 S.W.A.T. 4,570,388 8,334,862 -45.2 2,600 5 1,758 108,784,017 Sony
6 The Order 4,438,899 1,975 1 2,248 4,438,899 Fox
7 Open Range 4,202,447 8,074,275 -48.0 2,268 4 1,853 49,308,750 Buena Vista
8 Seabiscuit 3,705,320 6,517,785 -43.2 2,573 7 1,440 109,642,685 Universal
9 Freddy vs. Jason 3,243,261 7,111,236 -54.4 2,505 4 1,295 78,349,963 New Line
10 Uptown Girls 2,466,987 4,254,318 -42.0 2,031 4 1,215 33,584,221 MGM
11 American Wedding 2,195,325 3,737,605 -41.3 1,514 6 1,450 100,668,200 Universal
12 The Medallion 2,183,244 4,682,812 -53.4 2,180 3 1,001 19,847,415 Sony
13 The Italian Job 1,754,500 2,951,157 -40.5 1,487 15 1,180 103,344,071 Paramount
14 My Boss's Daughter 1,753,748 3,494,081 -49.8 1,892 3 927 13,841,269 Miramax
15 Spy Kids 3-D 1,080,772 2,514,052 -57.0 1,825 7 592 108,886,203 Miramax
16 Bad Boys II 1,022,456 1,496,368 -31.7 741 8 1,380 136,429,760 Sony
17 Le Divorce 952,396 1,595,239 -40.3 674 5 1,413 7,623,036 Fox Searchlight
18 Whale Rider 893,391 1,103,454 -19.0 556 14 1,607 18,128,226 Newmarket
19 Dirty Pretty Things 852,661 1,076,782 -20.8 493 8 1,730 5,771,124 Miramax
20 Finding Nemo 804,150 1,536,533 -47.7 903 15 891 333,843,390 Buena Vista
Top 5 $ 28,104,711 $ 48,868,879 -42.5
Top 10 46,161,625 75,172,635 -38.6
Top 20 59,654,268 90,940,301 -34.4
Top 20 vs. 2002 59,654,268 66,544,663 -10.4

Last Updated : September 8, 2003 at 4:45PM EDT

Gitesh Pandya can be seen each Friday on "The Biz" airing at 12:30pm and 9:30pm ET on CNNfn.