Big Fish outsmarts the King

After reigning for three weeks, the third instalment in the J R R Tolkien saga seems to have been finally swallowed by Big Fish, a quirky film about a dying man with fabulous imagination and his estranged son.

According to the Columbia Pictures' estimate on Sunday, The Return Of The King was narrowly dethroned by Big Fish. But New Line was still hoping that when the final figures arrive on Monday evening, its own ROTK would still be the reigning champ. The actual figures vary from the estimates by two to four per cent. 

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With a $14.5 million weekend gross, Tim Burton's Big Fish jumped from 12th position to the top position after four weeks of limited run.

Now in its fourth week, ROTK has grossed an eye-popping $312 million, with its $14.25 weekend gross. Worldwide its gross has reached $700 million.

While the top five films on the chart were heldovers, the sixth and seventh positions were taken over by newcomers. But both My Baby's Daddy and Chasing Liberty opened with disappointing results.

The story of three young men forced to take responsibility for their children when their girlfriends all get pregnant at about the same time, My Baby's Daddy wasn't apparently amusing enough. It grossed about $7.8 million. But the film starring Eddie Griffin as one of the three men was not as disastrous as Chasing Liberty. While the latter went wild and opened in about 2,500 theatres, My Baby's Daddy was in just about 1,400 theatres.

Singer and actress Mandy Moore's Chasing Liberty is the story of a repressed daughter of the American President who stages her own escape in Europe so that she could be like other teenagers, having lots of fun. The film was meant to draw in date crowds and plenty of young audiences. But it grossed a paltry $6 million. Reviews were mostly tepid. 'Good in areas where it doesn't need to be good at all,' complained Roger Ebert in Chicago Sun-Times, 'and pretty awful where it has to succeed.'

Like Chasing Liberty, My Baby's Daddy too was expected to do well with younger audiences.

Surely, comedies and dramas aimed at the older audiences fared far better. At the third position on the chart was Steve Martin's Cheaper By The Dozen which has grossed $101 million in three weeks. It was followed by the Jack Nicholson-Diane Keaton romantic comedy Something's Gotta Give that has taken $92 million in five weeks.

Another venture which, like Big Fish, was considered commercially risky, continues to do well at the fifth position. The Civil War drama Cold Mountain, which has grossed a decent $53 million in three weeks, could see a bigger haul of the box-office if it gets a number of key Oscar nominations.

The eight positions went to Paycheck, the sci-fi adventure directed by John Woo, has grossed a so-so $46 million in three weeks. It was followed by The Last Samurai, the Tom Cruise film which is dragging itself to the $100 million mark which it could reach in ten days.

Julia Roberts' Mona Lisa Smile is not the disaster many box-office observers expected it to be but it is not a big success either. At tenth position, it has grossed $57 million in three weeks.

The big disappointment of the season, Peter Pan, fell from the top 10 to 11th place with an anaemic weekend gross. With $39 million in three weeks, it will be fighting hard to earn $50 million. Without a solid international run, and then a hefty DVD sale, this $100 million movie will plunge into big losses.

After just one week on the top 10 list, the genial British comedy Calendar Girls dropped to 12th position, but the low-budget laffer about 11 older women posing in the nude to raise money for a charity is doing pretty well. It has grossed $16 million, and could eventually see a $30 million gross.

The box office this week:

Rank	Film	Weekend gross	Total gross	Number of weeks
1	Big Fish	$14.5 million	$24m	5
2	The Return Of The King	$14.2 million (less 50% from the previous weekend)	$312m	4
3	Cheaper By The Dozen	$12 million (less 44% from the previous weekend)	$101m	3
4	Something's Gotta Give	$8.2 million (less 30% from the previous weekend)	$92.9m	5
5	Cold Mountain	$7.9 million (less 33% from the previous weekend)	$55m	3
6	My Baby's Daddy	$7.8 million	$7.8m	New
7	Chasing Liberty	$6 million	$6m	New
8	Paycheck	$5.2 million (less 46% from the previous weekend)	$46m	3
9	The Last Samurai	$4.7 million (less 39% from the previous weekend)	$97m	6
10	Mona Lisa Smile	$4.5 million (less 46% from the previous weekend)	$57m	4