Evan Almighty, the religious-themed comedy sequel to Bruce Almighty, topped the weekend box office with an estimated $32.1 million, a far cry from the $68 million opening of Bruce Almighty, which starred Jim Carrey, but more than enough to vanquish last week's victor, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, which plummeted 65% earning an estimated $20.15 million while falling to third place. Evan Almighty reportedly cost over $175 million to produce and it appears that the film will have to be a big hit on DVD if Universal is going to make its money back.
The surprising second place finisher was the Stephen King-derived 1408, which cost only $25 million and managed to break the recent box office curse on horror films by earning an estimated $20.175 million, the largest opening ever for a film based on a Stephen King book. 1408, which stars John Cusack and Samuel L. Jackson, features psychological horror and suspense rather than the torture-derived, gore-fueled horror of Hostel Part 2, which dropped to #13 in its third week of release earning only a million and looks like it will be lucky to reach $20 million in its domestic run.
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End slipped to #6 earning an estimated $7.2 million and bringing its five-week total to $287 million. It appears that Pirates won't be able to overtake Spider-Man 3, which came in at number 12 and brought its 2007-leading cumulative to $332.5 million. Shrek the Third, which finished eighth earned $5.7 million in its sixth week of release, has earned $307 so far and has a slightly better (but still outside) chance of catching Spidey.
The new Nancy Drew film came in ninth, but only dropped 34%, while earning $4.5 million and bringing its total to $16.2 million.
Satoshi Kon's Paprika expanded to 37 theaters and brought in $85,100 with a decent $2,300 per theater average. Michael Moore's documentary Sicko earned $70,000 from one NYC location and sold out previews in a dozen cities, indicating that it could turn out to be a very strong box office performer for a documentary, though it is difficult to see how it will be able to match Fahrenheit 9/11's $119 million.