As expected, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix took the weekend box office crown with an estimated total of $77.4 million, which ran its five-day cumulative total to $140 million.  While the fifth Potter film's weekend total was lower than those of its predecessors, that was to be expected given the film's strong opening on Wednesday (see 'When Harry Topped Spidey'), which attracted many of the hardcore fans who would have gone on Friday in a normal weekend opening. 

While it is off to a great start, the Harry Potter film still has a long way to go to top any of the previous films in the series, which have earned a collective $3.5 billion at the box office worldwide.  Although Order of the Phoenix did top Spider-Man 2's Wednesday total and set a new record for Wednesday openings, the second Spidey film earned $152 million through its first weekend (though it should be noted that Spidey 2 had a Fourth of July holiday to help its total along).

Meanwhile the Transformers earned an estimated $36 million, which was good enough for second place and represented only a 48.9% decline from last weekend's total.  An under 50% decline represents a very strong performance in this front-loaded age, but it should be recalled that the Transformers movie opened on a Monday night at 8 pm, so its first weekend total was suppressed, which made it easier to keep the second weekend decline in check.  Still Transformers has earned $222 million and has a chance to reach the $300 million mark.

Pixar's Ratatouille earned an estimated $18 million, which brings its total to $143 million, though it is still 9% behind Cars' total from last year.  Ratatouille dropped only38%, but the Stephen King-based 1408 dropped even less, just 29%, and could end up as the top horror film of 2007.  1408 psychological suspense stands in stark contrast to the brutal, blood-splattered horror films like Hostel that audiences appear to be rejecting this year -- the latest case in point is Captivity, which earned only $1.6 million with miniscule per theater average under $1,500.

Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer fell out of the top ten, earning just $1.5 million.  With a cumulative of $127.1 million it looks like the FF movie will finish around $130 million, a full 16% less than the $154 million earned by the first FF film.  Spider-Man 3 fell out of the top 25 and looks like it will end up about 10% below the total of Spider-Man 2, but it remains the top-grossing film of 2007 so far.

Satoshi Kon's Paprika earned a paltry $24,500 bringing its total to $686,000.