New Lines WEDDING CRASHERS, overtook Warner Bros. CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE for the top spot in the box office for the weekend ended July 31, 2005. The R-rated comedy gathered $20M for a three-week cume of $115.6M. The Tim Burton movie (with delightful vfx from MPC, Framestore CFC, Cinesite and Digital Domain) settled for second place with $16.3M and a total of $148M.
Buena Vistas SKY HIGH (with vfx from Asylum VFX, Furious FX and Lola Visual Effects) debuted in third with $14.6M. Coming in fourth was Sonys STEALTH (with noteworthy vfx from Digital Domain), which had a disappointing stealth-like opening with $13.25M. Warner Bros. romantic comedy, MUST LOVE DOGS, followed in fifth place with $12.8M. Foxs FANTASTIC FOUR (with vfx principally from Giant Killer Robots, Stan Winston Digital and Soho VFX) slid to sixth with $6.9M and $136.2M. DreamWorks THE ISLAND (with vfx by ILM and K.N.B. EFX) fell to seventh with $5.9M and a disappointing two-week take of only $24.3M.Paramounts BAD NEWS BEARS (with vfx by CafeFX) managed $5.6M for an eighth place finish and a two-week cume of $22.6M. Also from Paramount, WAR OF THE WORLDS (with vfx from ILM), dropped to ninth with $5.4M and a cume of $218.3M. Stepping on the toes of the big summer movies is the documentary film from Warner Independent Pictures, MARCH OF THE PENGUINS, which held onto 10th place with a take of $4M and a cume of $16.3M.
Hayao Miyazakis HOWLS MOVING CASTLE collected another $48,823 for a cume of $4.4M for Buena Vista (with Pixars Pete Docter and Disneys Rick Dempsey overseeing the American version). It now ranks seventh on the all-time list of anime titles. Box office information obtained from boxofficemojo.com.
Bill Desowitz, former editor of VFXWorld, is currently the Crafts Editor of IndieWire.
