Last week's box office leader (Alien vs. Predator) and leading box office surprise (Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie) both dropped by over 67% during their second weekend of release. While Hollywood's front-loaded marketing campaigns for summer blockbusters have made 50% drops in week two the norm, anything over 65% is definitely a bad sign.
A prequel to the Exorcist (Exorcist: The Beginning) took the top spot but earned only an estimated $18 million (AVP opened with over $38 last weekend).
In its second frame Alien vs. Predator dropped some 67.4%, finishing in fourth place and earning an estimated $12.5 million. In contrast to AVP's precipitous drop, The Princess Diaries 2, which finished second to AVP last week, dropped only 42% and finished ahead of AVP in third place this weekend.
Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie, which finished a surprising fourth last week, dropped nearly 70% and finished at number eleven during its second weekend at the box office.
Spider-Man 2 also fell out of the top 10 and finished at #12 during its eighth week of release. It should finish at around $375 million, a stellar performance, but not enough to equal the original Spider-Man ($403 million) or to catch Shrek 2 with its current total of some $436 million.