Paramount's adaptation of the popular series of children's books, Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events took the box office crown this weekend with an estimated total of $30.2 million. Compared with the past three years the overall box office total for this key weekend before Christmas was down considerably (26% below last year's) with no Lord of the Rings film opening. Last week's leader Ocean's Twelve dropped 53.4 % and Blade: Trinity, which finished in second place a week ago, fell nearly 59%, while this week's other new offerings including Spanglish ($9 million) and The Flight of the Phoenix ($5.1 million) failed to live up to expectations.
Blade Trinity earned $6.6 million in its second weekend of release and brought its total to $35.4 million. It appears that Blade: Trinity won't come close to the box office totals of the first Blade ($70.1 million) or Blade 2 ($81.6 million). In fact it is doubtful that Blade: Trinity will earn back its estimated $65 million cost at the American box office though foreign revenues and additional earnings from its video release could push it into profitability. Right now another Blade film appears unlikely, though industry experts said the same thing about Batman after Joel Schumacher apparently finished off the screen career of the caped crusader in the 1990s.
