Batman Begins won the box office derby for the second week in a row, dropping only 45% to earn an estimated $26.7 million, easily topping newcomers Bewitched ($20 million) and Herbie Fully Loaded ($12.7 million).  Batman Begins' 45% drop-off was similar to those experienced by previous batflics Batman Returns and Batman Forever, though back in the 1990s a drop of more than 40% was considered a very bad sign equivalent to a decline of over 50% in today's market where heavily hyped blockbusters are more front-loaded than ever. 

Batman Begins managed to beat today's average summer action blockbuster performance standard because of solid word of mouth -- the film has graded out higher than any previous Batman film in audience exit polls.  Batman Begins continues to draw an audience that is 57% male and 54% under 25 and it has amassed a 12-day cumulative total of $121.7 million.  But in spite of Batman Begins' strong second week showing (and that of Mr. & Mrs. Smith, which declined just 36% in its third week) the over-all weekend box office gross of $116 million was far below the 2004 total of $138 million for the same weekend -- marking the eighteenth straight week of decline -- the longest year-to-year losing streak that Hollywood has suffered in over two decades.

While Batman Begins performed well in its second weekend, it will never sell as many tickets as some of its Bat-predecessors.  Adjusted for inflation Tim Burton's 1989 Batman film would have had an opening weekend gross of $65 million and a cumulative domestic total of over $400 million, a goal that its clearly out of reach for Batman Begins.

George A. Romero's Land of the Dead debuted in fifth place with an estimated total of $10.2 million.  Unlike last year's remake of Dawn of the Dead, Land of the Dead had only a very modest advertising budget -- and the film, which cost only $15 million to make should be quickly profitable, though its demographics -- 62% male audience with 67% under 25 indicate that Land of the Dead may follow the pattern of most zombie films (with the exception of 28 Days Later) and drop-off quickly in subsequent weeks.

Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith remained in the top ten during its sixth weekend of release earning an estimated $6.2 million and bringing its cumulative to $358 million.  It appears that it will be difficult for Episode III to reach the $400 million plateau.

The box office total for Hayao Miyazaki's Howl's Moving Castle dropped 35% as the film earned $560,000 from the same 202 theaters it was in last week, bringing its total to $2.5 million.