The respected Lew Irwin said in today's Studio Briefing, "Twentieth Century Fox's decision to produce Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer in such a way that it would receive a PG rating apparently paid off in spades for the studio over the weekend. The film defied analysts' predictions of a $30-million opening and grossed nearly twice that amount -- an estimated $57.4 million -- to take the top spot at the box office." Hey buddy, what analysts were you listening to?
Yeah, the two Daves' predictions were a bit low, but were still within 8% of the final gross. However, only one Dave correctly predicted that Nancy Drew would not be a big draw, averaging under $2800 per screen like just about every other tween movie aimed at girls. OK, we heard of one senile great-grandmother who showed up but kept asking where Bonita Granville was. Both of us bombed on Surf's Up, thinking that it would have a similarly small drop as other well-reviewed animated films. But we underestimated the small-fry drawing power of Fantastic Four and its PG rating, siphoning an extra couple million clams away from the penguins. The rest of the top 10 had predictable declines, including the sharp downward spiral of Hostel Part II.
Schadenfreude alert: We overestimated the pull of DOA: Dead or Alive, which pulled in a whopping $516 per theater for just $260,713 total. Wow. Harvey is probably stewing, trying to figure out how he can fire himself. Next week will be a tough one to predict, with Evan Almighty and 1408 vying for eyeballs in the multiplexes, and the Angelina Jolie wildcard A Mighty Heart hitting the arthouse venues.
| Rank | Film | Total |
| 1 | Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surver | $58.1 million |
| 2 | Ocean's Thirteen | $19.7 million |
| 3 | Knocked Up | $14.1 million |
| 4 | Pirates of the Caribbean | $12.4 million |
| 5 | Surf's Up | $9.3 million |
| 6 | Shrek the Third | $9.0 million |
| 7 | Nancy Drew | $6.8 million |
| 8 | Hostel Part II | $3.0 million |
| 9 | Mr. Brooks | $2.9 million |
| 10 | Spider-Man 3 | $2.5 million |
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