I, Robot, starring Will Smith, easily captured the weekend box office crown by pulling in an estimated $52.2 million (for a look at the books that tie-in with I, Robot, see 'Retailers Have a Choice of I, Robot Tie-Ins').  After a two-week reign Spider-Man 2 slipped to second place with its gross declining 46% to an estimated $24.2 million.  On Sunday Spidey slipped past the $300 million mark and ended the weekend an estimated cumulative of $301.7 million.  During its ninth week of release Shrek 2 finally dropped out of the top ten, but still added $3 million, bringing its total to an astounding $425 million.  At present it appears that Spider-Man 2 will have to inspire a lot of repeat business if it is to have a chance of catching Dreamworks' runaway ogre -- and repeat theatrical viewing appears to be in something of a decline in the age of the DVD.

 

We will have to wait until the official figures come out on Monday to find out which film finished third -- the estimates for A Cinderella Story (starring Hillary Duff) and Anchorman were nearly identical.  The historical fantasy film King Arthur dropped some 54.4% in its second weekend of release and finished in sixth place.  Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban finished at number 12 and ran its total to $238 million.