Cult director Terry Gilliam's The Brothers Grimm underperformed at the box office this weekend, landing in second place as last week's winner, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, held on to the top spot with an estimated total of $16.4 million.  In spite of the presence of Matt Damon and Heath Ledger, Grimm averaged only a mediocre $4,889 per location while earning an estimated $15 million.  In spite of the fact that Gilliam's film failed to win the box office derby on a weekend many though it should, it's much to early to write-off The Brothers Grimm, especially since 'cult movies' these days do most of their damage on DVD.

 

Veteran director Wes Craven's horror film Red Eye dropped only 35% and took third place with an estimated $10 million gross in its second weekend.  This summer's big comedy hit Wedding Crashers slipped just 22% and brought its cumulative to $187 million, making it the number one comedy of 2005 so far and pretty much ensuring that it will break the $200 million barrier.

 

The superhero comedy Sky High earned $2.6 million and brought its cumulative total to $55 million -- it should finish around $60 million. Meanwhile both the Fantastic Four ($151.7 million) and Batman Begins ($202.9 million) are near the end of their runs finishing at #20 and #21 respectively.  Once again the total for the top 25 films was far (more than 20%) below the total for week 34 of 2004, providing yet another example of Hollywood's prolonged slump at the domestic box office.