Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer topped the weekend box office with an estimated total of $57.4 million and strong per-theater average of $14,449.  Rise of the Silver Surfer just barely topped the opening of the first FF film, which brought in $56.1 million during its debut in the summer of 2005.  The triumph of the new FF film, which had almost triple the total of its nearest competitor, marked the seventh straight weekend that a sequel had topped the box office.  The Rise of the Silver Surfer's 3-day opening total is the seventh highest in Marvel franchise history trailing only the three Spider-Man films, the second and third X-Men movies and Ang Lee's Hulk.  Although The Rise of the Silver Surfer is running slightly ahead of the original FF film, it will have a tough time matching the 2005 film's $154.7 million domestic cumulative particularly since it will have to do most of its damage before Michael Bay's Transformers arrives on July 3rd.

The other key new entry (as far as pop culture retailers are concerned) was Warner Bros. Nancy Drew, which only managed to bring in $7.1 million while averaging $2,731 per theater.  The jury is not totally in on this teenage sleuth film, which has a lot of tie-in potential thanks to PaperCutz' series of graphic novels, but it appears as if it might have to do most of its damage on DVD.  Reviews of the Nancy Drew movie were generally unfavorable, but most critics liked Emma Roberts as Nancy and were hoping that she would get a chance to do a sequel with a more compelling mystery plot line.

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End slipped to fourth place, but still added an estimated $12 million to bring its domestic total so far to $273 million.  It still has a chance to catch Spider-Man 3, which fell to #10 in its seventh weekend at the domestic box office where it has now earned $330 million.  Spidey's other major competitor, Shrek the Third, dropped to sixth, earning an estimated $9 million and driving its five week total to $297 million.

The torture/horror film Hostel Part II dropped 63.4% from its disastrous opening weekend total and looks like it will have a hard time making even half of the $47.4 that the first Hostel film earned.