Invincible Scores Box Office Touchdown

Invincible lived up to its title at the box office, taking home the top prize by a large margin, according to studio estimates. A trio of major new competitors - Invincible, Beerfest, and Idlewild - came out of the gate headed for box office glory, but it was the Mark Wahlberg inspirational sports movie that scored the most box office touchdowns, claiming $17 million for an easy first place win, one that knocked Snakes on a Plane far off its perch. How far? A stunning first-to-ninth drop, down 58% to only 5.9 million and a dismal $1,648 per screen, horrible for a second week. The highly buzzed Samuel L. Jackson flick has only claimed $26 million to date and doesn't look like it will be able to fly significantly higher than a disappointing $30 million.

Invincible is more than halfway to that mark after only three days. Opening on 2,917 screens, Invincible averaged $5,837 per screen, for the second highest average of the week (after Outkast's Idlewild, which bowed on about a third as many screens as Invincible). After a few weeks at number one, Talladega Nights: The Legend of Ricky Bobby had dropped to second place last week to make room for the Snakes, but Talladega Nights held on to the second spot this week with a respectable drop of only 42% and a fourth week lap of $8 million, bringing its spectacular total gross to almost $128 million after four weeks.

Little Miss Sunshine doubled its screen count to just over 1,400 and surprisingly stole the third spot from more-hyped newcomers like Beerfest and Idlewild with an impressive $7.5 million, bringing its total to $23 million to date. Beerfest had to settle for a disappointing fourth place bow with only $6.5 million, even though it was on twice as many screens as Little Miss Sunshine. Beerfest's paltry $2,192 per screen was the lowest in the top five and a dismal number for an opening weekend.

The fifth spot went to another comedy - they're everywhere this week - Universal's Accepted, which clearly benefited from good word of mouth, dropping only 35% for $6.5 million and $21 million to date. Not bad for a low budget comedy whose biggest names are Justin Long and Lewis Black. World Trade Center fell 41% to sixth place, adding another $6.4 million to its $55.6 million gross after three weeks in release.

Music-centered films claimed seventh and eighth with Step Up and Idlewild landing the spots, respectively. Step Up fell only 39% in its third week for $6.2 million and $50 million to date. Idlewild claimed the week's highest per screen average of $6,055 and a total of about $5.9 million. Barnyard closed out the top ten for the week with another $5.4 million to add to its very strong $54.7 million total. In the CGI battle of Monster House, Ant Bully, and Barnyard, Ant Bully is clearly third with only $26 million, while Barnyard looks like it could close in on Monster House's $69 million. The week's final newcomer, How to Eat Fried Worms, opened unsuccessfully in twelfth place with only $4 million for its debut frame.

Next week, Invincible will meet two strong competitors in Nicolas Cage and Jason Statham. Statham's action movie Crank is the frontrunner to take the top prize, opening on 2,400 screens, but Cage's horror pic The Wicker Man will give Statham a run for his money, opening wider on 2,500+. The streetball pic Crossover and an expansion of The Illusionist to almost 1,000 screens will try and steal a top ten spot as well with Mike Judge's long-delayed Idiocracy opening on only 125 screens, unlikely to make a dent on the box office charts.

[Sources: Box Office Mojo]