There definitely were fireworks for Steven Spielbergs WAR OF THE WORLDS, which hauled in $77M for the Independence Day holiday weekend ended July 4, 2005. It ranks second only to SPIDER-MAN 2s $88.2M for Independence Day holiday bows. Overall, WAR OF THE WORLDS grabbed $112.7M in its first six days, the best opening for Paramount Pictures, the best single-day opener for star Tom Cruise and the fastest movie to cross the $100M mark for Spielberg.
Meanwhile, overseas, WAR OF THE WORLDS grabbed an estimated 102.5M in 78 countries through July 3, for a cume of $215.2M, making it the biggest international opening ever for a non-sequel.
As for the rest of the box office, it was the 19th straight week that the cume was less than the comparable period a year ago. Coming in second was Warner Bros. BATMAN BEGINS (with vfx from Double Negative, MPC, Rising Sun Pictures and BUF) with $19.3M and a cume of $154.8M. Foxs MR. AND MRS. SMITH (with vfx by Digital Dimension) held the third spot with $12.7M and $146M. Sonys BEWITCHED (with vfx by Sony Pictures Imageworks) slid to fourth with $11M and a two-week tally of $40.5M. Buena Vistas HERBIE: FULLY LOADED (with vfx by Entity FX, ILM and a host of other boutiques) came in fifth with $10.7M and a two-week cume of $37M). DreamWorks MADAGASCAR held the sixth position with $6.7M and total of $172.1M (ninth on the all-time list of 3D-animated features). Foxs REBOUND debuted at number seven with $6M. Foxs STAR WARS: EPISODE III REVENGE OF THE SITH (with impressive vfx from ILM) finished in eighth with $5M and a cume of $366.5M. Paramounts THE LONGEST YARD (with vfx by Rhythm & Hues) came in ninth with $4M for a total of $148.6M. Universals LAND OF THE DEAD (with work from Switch VFX and Spin) fell to 10th with $3.2M for a two-week cume of $16.7M
Hayao Miyazakis well-received HOWLS MOVING CASTLE collected $483,539 and $3.3 M for Buena Vista (with Pixars Pete Docter and Disneys Rick Dempsey overseeing the American version). It now ranks seventh on the list of anime titles. Box office information obtained from boxofficemojo.com.
Bill Desowitz, former editor of VFXWorld, is currently the Crafts Editor of IndieWire.
