The Associated Press reports that the first October weekend of box office swept away the September doldrums. The animated fish story 'Shark Tale' starring Will Smith and Jack Black swam to the top of the heap with a healthy showing of $49.1 million. John Travolta’s firefighter drama “Ladder 49” trailed behind in second at $22.8 million, which was higher than most box office winners in the past few weeks. Last week’s top seller “The Forgotten” came in third with $12 million, bringing its 10-day total to $38.3 million.
A surprise hit this weekend was 'Woman, Thou Art Loosed.' The movie is based on a book by Texas by T.D. Jakes, a Texas bishop, about a woman scarred by her past, who ends up on Death Row. The movie did $2.5 million dollars to come in sixth place despite only opening in 408 theaters. 'I (Heart) Huckabees,' the strange new movie from David O. Russell which stars Jude Law and Dustin Hoffman had a healthy debut in limited release, taking in $300,062 in only four New York City and Los Angeles theaters. The movie will expand to nationwide release over the next few weeks.
'Shark Tale' and 'Ladder 49' were good news to film companies who were concerned after the weak numbers of the last month. This weekend the top 12 movies took in $104.4 million, up 30 percent from the same weekend last year. This was the first increase in a month. 'The box-office has been flatlining for the last month. September was absolutely abysmal,' said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Exhibitor Relations. 'So 'Shark Tale' and to a lesser extent 'Ladder 49' really jump-started the marketplace.'
Despite lackluster reviews and claims of defamation by American Italian interesting groups, “Shark Tale” was such a hit that it may be the top October debut, beating last year’s “Scary Movie 3” which did $48.1 million last October. The movie did not do as well as last year’s “Finding Nemo” which took in $70.3 million in its debut but it was DreamWorks’s second best opening ever behind the monster success of Shrek 2 ($108 million).
“Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow” was a distant fourth with only $3.4 million. Zombie flicks “Shaun of the Dead” and “Resident Evil: Apocalypse came in at numbers seven and eight respectively, each bringing in under two and a half million dollars.
