The Grudge 2 chilled an estimated $22.5 million to take top honors in the weekend movie going derby. In a status quo frame, freshmen entries ranged from a disappointing $12.5 million ballot for Man of the Year to a fair $7 million pin for The Marine and a rather upbeat $4.2 million encounter with One Night with the King.

Limited bows were generally unexceptional including Infamous with a precarious $2,420 theater average while expansions of The Queen and ShortBus continued to perform regally.

Part of the wave of Asian horror remakes, The Grudge 2 recruited its Japanese creator to helm the sequel of the remake of the adaptation. The result largely drew yawns from the critical community and while its box office ascent was assured it came with a sharp 26% drop from Friday to Saturday. With Halloween on the horizon, the weekly offerings of Chainsaws and the like numb the nerves and coffers quite quickly.

While tracking had never been robust for the political comedy Man of the Year, expectations were still roughly 20% to 25% higher than early reported results. Reviews gave soft marks to its humor, satire and political savvy and audiences could not be convinced otherwise.

The Marine mustered no better than a sampling of the character’s World Wrestling fan base. However, with ancillaries the modestly produced venture appears to be a modest entry on the positive side of the ledger.

In an otherwise less than invigorating marquee selection, the Bible’s story of Esther in One Night with the King attracted the faithful quite impressively. The independent production carried on an adroit, well targeted campaign that sidestepped most of the major marketplace hurdles.

Weekend business should exceed $110 million for a slight 3% boost from the prior weekend. It was a hefty 29% improvement from 2005 when newcomers The Fog and Elizabethtown failed to spark with respective debuts of $11.7 million and $10.6 million. The current domestic box office of $7.2 billion exceeds last year by about 5% but admissions are no more than 1% better at this point.

Holdover titles largely experienced 50% hits with the major exceptions – The Departed and Open Season – maintaining appeal with very different demographics at a 70% level.

Meanwhile, the slowly evolving award season has continued to shine on early entries with orchestrated rollouts of The Queen and The Last King of Scotland maintaining momentum, particularly the former. Also on the plus side are the slight boost in theaters for the controversial ShortBus and the 83% hold for Little Children which expands next weekend.

The question mark hanging over Infamous that mirrors last year’s Capote in exploring the author’s creation of In Cold Blood could not be shaken by initial box office returns. Though armed with critical acclaim, audiences were unconvinced about revisiting the subject matter.

More vibrant was the contemporary immigrant saga Sweet Land that posted $44,800 from two venues and an encouraging $16,300 in four outings for the much praised documentary Deliver Us from Evil centering on a pedophile priest and the Church’s haphazard handling of the incident.

The single screen $8,100 gross for Terry Gilliam’s Tideland was good without being indicative of future prospects while Brit import Driving Lessons shifted into low gear and indie entry Nearing Grace failed to register a pulse.

– by Leonard Klady

Top Domestic Releases: To October 12, 2006

Domestic Market Share: To October 12, 2006

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