Cindy Campbell (Anna Faris) lights up the way in a spoof of The Grudge from a scene in the new movie 'Scary Movie 4'. - CONTRIBUTED
LOS ANGELES (AP)
PRODUCERS BOB and Harvey Weinstein returned to the box-office lead as Scary Movie 4 debuted with US$41 million, the first number one opening for the new company founded by the former Miramax bosses.
It was the best Easter weekend debut ever, beating the US$30.1 million opening of Panic Room in 2002, according to studio estimates yesterday.
With the success of Scary Movie 4, Bob Weinstein said he hopes to have a fifth film in the horror-spoof franchise in theatres over Easter weekend next year.
Scary Movie 4 was released under the Weinstein Co.'s Dimension label, which the brothers brought with them after their departure from Disney-owned Miramax last year. Disney continues to share half the proceeds from the Scary Movie flicks and any future instalments in pre-existing Dimension franchises, such as the Scream or Spy Kids series.
The animated hit Ice Age: The Meltdown, which had been number one the previous two weekends, slipped to second place with US$20 million, raising its total to US$147.2 million. The weekend's other new wide release, Disney's animated tale The Wild, debuted at number four with US$9.6 million.
Fox Searchlight's acclaimed satire Thank You for Smoking, a hit in limited release, expanded nationwide and took in US$4.45 million to come in at number eight.
Hollywood's overall revenues rose for the fourth straight weekend, with the top-12 movies grossing US$110 million. That was up 23 per cent from 2005's Easter weekend, which came three weeks earlier last year. It was up about 45 per cent compared to the mid-April weekend last year.
The industry has pulled ahead slightly from its slow pace last year, when movie attendance fell 8 per cent. The Ice Age and Scary Movie sequels have provided a solid lead-in to what analysts consider a strong early-summer line-up that launches next month with Mission: Impossible III, The Da Vinci Code, the animated tale Over the Hedge and Poseidon, a remake of The Poseidon Adventure.
Scary Movie 4 continued the success of 2003's Scary Movie 3. The first Scary Movie opened at number one in 2000 with US$42 million.
(US) millions
| 1 | Scary Movie 4 | $41.0 |
| 2 | Ice Age: The |
| Meltdown | $20.0 |
| 3 | The Benchwarmers | $10.0 |
| 4 | The Wild | | $9.6 |
| 5 | Take the Lead | | $6.7 |
| 6 | Inside Man | | $6.3 |
| 7 | Lucky Number Slevin | | $4.6 |
| 8 | Thank You For |
| Smoking | | $4.5 |
| 9 | Failure to Launch | | $2.6 |
| 10 | V For Vendetta | | $2.2 |
