Michael Mann's big screen adaptation of his Miami Vice TV series took the weekend box office crown away from Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, earning an estimated $25 million to Pirates' $20.5 million.  Pirates only fell 42% during its fourth week of release and its cumulative is now over $358 million, well on the way to a plus $400 million finish.  Judging from most industry projections, Miami Vice actually underperformed, earning just over $8,300 per venue.

The surprise film of this generally disappointing weekend (a minor dip in a summer season that has seen a considerable rebound over 2005) was the high school 'revenge comedy' John Tucker Must Die, which finished in third place with an estimated $14 million. 

Monster House is the clear winner of the battle of new computer-animated films earning $11.5 million in its second weekend and punishing the overly didactic Ant Bully, which opened with a disappointing $8.1 million.  Meanwhile Pixar's Cars fell out of the top ten (to #14), but still earned enough to raise its cumulative to $234.6 million, second only to Pirates' mega-total.

Kevin Smith's Clerks 2 continues to do well -- the $5 million film took in nearly $4 million during its second weekend and raised its cumulative to $18.4 million.  The much more expensive to produce, My Super Ex-Girlfriend, slid 56.1% in its second week of release and now trails Clerks 2 with a 2-week total of $16.4 million.