Weekend box-office: comedy rules!

A reader on Monsters and Critics recently wrote a comment in “TalkBack” hopping in the second half of the year the studios would break out more comedy than they did in the first half of the year.

Well……….to that point, opening last week at 3,803 locations was Will Ferrell’s ‘Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby.’ American movie goers agreed they needed more comedy – pushing “Talladega” into the number one position at the box-office with a $47 million take.Talledega attracted an audience that was mostly male (53 percent) and young (52 percent under 25).Distrib Sony was smiling."It's one of those movies--pardon the pun--firing on all cylinders. When you have Will Ferrell and NASCAR, you just know you are going to have a crowd pleaser," Rory Bruer, president of distribution for Sony, reportedly told the Associated Press.But that is not all, not only was it Farrell’s biggest opener (compared with ‘Elf’ at $31.1) but it was the second largest comedy opening of all time, behind ‘Bruce Almighty’ and number one comedy preem for 2006.Guess that proves the old adage, when world news is bleak, folks do return to the movies for entertainment and comedy is the outlet of choice.In number two spot was Nickelodeon’s ‘Barnyard’ with release at 3,311 locations. Crammed in a summer release period of animated pics – ‘Ant Bully’ releasing last week and ‘Monster House’ two weeks ago, Barnyard pulled in a respectable $16 million.Biggest disappointment was Michael Mann’s Miami Vice falling 62% at the box office for a take of $9.7 million in its second week of release – from its $25.7 million opening. This compared with Mann’s ‘Collateral’ which fell only 35% in its second week. Vice is in fourth place in this weekend’s box-office. It played at 3,026 theaters.In fifth place, after a year of release in the UK, ‘The Descent’ hit 2,095 theaters across the USA this past weekend clinking $ 8.8 million into the till. Lionsgate should be pleased with the take from this low budget but critically applauded horror flic.Third place at the box-office this weekend were our friends the ’Pirates of the Caribbean’. Hauling in $11 million from 3,436 locations Pirates has now plundered $379.7 million world wide in its fifth week of release.And in small independent release:Sony Pictures Classics opened its Sundance acquisition "Quinceanera" at 8 locations for a $96,942 take.And IFC’s "Brothers of the Head” didn’t seem to attract any demographic – the movie expanded from one theater to 11 taking in l $11,395for a total take of $20,399.