Dreamworks' Madagascar narrowly nosed out The Longest Yard and Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith to top the weekend box office derby with an estimated total of $28.7 million.  Demonstrating the 'legs' that apparently typify the 3-D computer-animated feature film genre, Madagascar dropped only 39.2% in its second week of release and raised its cumulative past the $100 million mark.  Just behind it was the Adam Sandler remake of The Longest Yard, which dropped just 45.2% in its second week to earn an estimated $26.1 million.  Revenge of the Sith, which has dominated the charts for the past two weeks, dropped 52.9%, earning an estimated $26 million.  Both Sith and The Longest Yard posted better per theater averages than did Madagascar, which is being shown in a staggering 4,142 locations.

 

Revenge of the Sith did set an all-time box office record this week as the fastest film to earn $300 million, accomplishing the deed in just 17 days, breaking the old record of 18 days held by Shrek 2.  But Sith's pace appears to be slowing considerably.  Its third weekend is only the fifteenth best in box office history (the original Spider-Man earned $45 million in its third weekend), and its quest to make the $400 million dollar club could well be in jeopardy, depending on how the film does during the next couple of weeks.  The key will be repeat viewers.  In this age of DVD, it appears unlikely that we will ever see a phenomenon like Titanic again, a film sustained for months in the theaters by repeat viewers who eventually pushed its total to $600 million.  But hardcore Star Wars fans may still get Revenge of the Sith past the $400 million barrier.

 

The top performer among films debuting this weekend was Cinderella Man, which earned an estimated $18.6 million.  By way of comparison Seabiscuit, another historically based, depression-era inspirational sports story, earned $20.8 million in its first weekend.  Seabiscuit ended up with about $120 million, which is the neighborhood in which the critically acclaimed Cinderella Man should eventually find itself.  Another newcomer, the skateboarding epic Lords of Dogtown opened weakly at just $5.7 million, and overall the first weekend in June was huge bust for Hollywood with total earnings of just $128.3 million versus $182.7 million in 2004.  Don't look for any overall box office records to be set in 2005 and be prepared for dozens of end-of -the year articles blaming Hollywood's declining box office fortunes on the rise of DVDs or the short-sighted tendencies of Tinseltown producers whose 'play it safe' policy of more and more sequels and remakes has worn out its welcome with potential viewers.