Arnold Schwarzenegger scored the biggest box office triumph of his career with the opening of Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, which generated an estimated $44 million over the Fourth of July weekend. T3 actually generated $72.5 million in its first five days (plus Tuesday previews), but it ranked well behind previous blockbusters such as Independence Day ($96.1 million), Men In Black II ($87.2 million) and Men in Black ($84.1 million) that opened over the Fourth. While Arnold had his biggest opening ever, he had better watch out because the midsummer box office trend this year is downward. For the fourth straight weekend box office receipts declined versus last year -- a sign that audiences may finally be tiring of Hollywood's never-ending parade of blockbuster sequels.
In second place this weekend was Legally Blonde 2, which grossed an estimated $22.9 million, slightly more than the first Legally Blonde film ($20.4 million). However the first pert Reese Witherspoon legal comedy had a much better per screen average. It will be interesting to see if higher ticket prices and heavier promotion will be enable Legally Blonde 2 to surpass its predecessor. Another sequel is faring even worse--Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle dropped a whopping 62% during its second weekend and now looks like it will have difficulty surpassing the $100 million mark. The Hulk may not even get a sequel after suffering another hefty drop (56%) and bringing in only about $8.2 million in its third frame, advancing its total to $117 million.
In spite of the much ballyhooed opening of Dreamworks' animated feature, Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas, Finding Nemo had another strong outing, earning $11 million, which brought its cumulative total to $274.9 million, making it the number one film of 2003 so far. Nemo is the first film since Spider-Man to earn more than $10 million for six consecutive weekends. Finding Nemo is now #18 on the list of all-time blockbusters and could even pass The Lion King ($312.9 million) before it is through.
While Nemo continued to prosper, Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas failed to generate any momentum in spite of a very wide release to over 3,000 theaters. Sinbad brought in only an estimated $6.8 million and had a very weak per screen average of just $2,203. Another animated disappointment, The Rugrats Go Wild earned a measly $1.5 million and will be lucky to earn half of what the previous Rugrats film did, which could spell the end for this particular animated franchise on the silver screen. 
