HollywoodIdiocy.com

Yes, the unlikely did happen and “Sex and the City” did take the top spot for weekend box office away from Indiana Jones … barely. While the Sarah Jessica Parker-headlined chick flick opened to a $27 million Friday, the film suffered from poor word-of-mouth and actually lost momentum as the weekend wore on. The final three-day tally for “Sex and the City” was only $55.7 million, about $20 million less that many industry analysts predicted after Friday’s big opening. However, since the film only cost New Line $65 million to make, the blogosphere and media press are still puffing it up as a huge win, with rumors of a sequel already in the planning.

My advice to film investors? Hide your wallets; the AbFab Four are certain to demand higher paydays for a second outing on the silver screen, so take a careful look at the business dynamics of the weekend before pouring $80 to $120 million into a sequel. Yes, the film had a fun Friday, but Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull gained momentum over the course of the weekend, beating Sex’s declining take on both Saturday and Sunday.

In fact, Harrison Ford and company posted a very impressive $46 million in its second week of release, bringing its domestic take to $216 million, $363 million when worldwide box office is added in. That’s in contrast to Sex, which thus far has done no business outside of the US.

Perhaps the biggest shocker of the weekend, however, is that Rogue Pictures’ slasher movie, The Strangers, took in $20.7 million in its opening weekend to bump Iron Man out of the third spot. Crafty casting may explain the surge in business for this Hostel-clone movie, as fans began to realize that, yes, that is Liv Tyler in the film, as well as former Felicity heartthrob Scott Speedman as the couple cornered by sadistic killers in a remote cabin.

The Strangers, which only cost $9 million to make, is already well into profit mode, even if business dries up next weekend. I’d venture to say that Tyler proved her box office drawing power by pushing a low-budget slasher/torture flick to over $20 million, than did Sarah Jessica Parker with her start-strong-and-fizzle-fast performance in Sex and the City. Tyler should be able to use the performance of The Strangers to draw a bigger payday in whatever she does next.

Iron Man stayed steady at fourth place, with $14 million, ahead of fifth-place Prince Caspian, which drew $13 million. Iron Man has done $276 million to date domestically, $505 million worldwide. Prince Caspian has made $115 domestically and $166 worldwide, but may need to wait until DVD/BluRay release to make its $200 million production budget back. Business is off considerably for Prince Caspian, as the first film in the series, Narnia, made $291 million at the box office, while this one will come nowhere near that cume.

The main difference seems to be that Narnia benefitted from the softer winter holiday season, whereas Prince Caspian was unleashed in the far-more-competitive summer season. The results of this downturn may cause Walden Media to scale down the $200 million budget for the third film, Voyage of the Dawn Treader, currently scheduled for another May release, in 2010; at the very least, the company may want to movie the third film back into the winter holiday season.

The rest of the Top 10 was as boring as a diet pill review, with nothing breaking the $10 million mark and some films not even making $1 million near the bottom of the roundup.

Next weekend is counter-programming to Iron Man and Indy, once again, but could also erode Sex and the City’s business as well; the Jack Black-voiced toon, Kung Fu Panda, makes its initial bow, along with the family-friendly Adam Sandler comedy, You Don’t Mess With the Zohan.

The weekend of June 13 will be the next big poke at adrenaline-fueled, testorerone-focused fare as both The Incredible Hulk and M. Night Shyamalan’s The Happening are strongly anticipated reviews, though expectations for the Hulk flick are muted due to both the original film’s critical failure, as well as Iron Man’s staying power.

If the second Hulk film flops, it’s likely a long timeout for the Jade Giant before he returns to the big screen again; in the meantime, most diehard comic book movie fans are setting their sights on the July 18 debut of The Dark Knight, the follow-up to the highly successful Batman relaunch, Batman Begins.

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There are some Orlando vacations in the futures of all the folks involved in making Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. The three-day total for Indy 4’s first weekend of release has reached an impressive $101 million domestically. With a Thrusday debut and a Memorial Day Monday added in, the film is set to make big bucks by the end of tonight.

With Monday total not yet in, Spielberg-Lucas-Ford action flick has so far grosses $126 million domestically and $146 million overseas, for a grand total of over $272 million combined; not bad for a movie that had a production budget of $185 million.

Prince Caspian, the second film in the Narnia Chronicles, based on the series of children’s stories by C.S. Lewis, did well enough to retain second place, but at $23 million, saw a huge, 58-percent dropoff from its debut week. Boasting a production budget of $200 million, Prince Caspian’s two-week total is $96 million domestically, and $22 million overseas, for a disappointing two-week total of only $118 million. This could make it difficult for the sequel to make its money back prior to DVD release.

That’s not a problem for Iron Man, which held on to the third spot in the box office race with an additional $20 million domestically. In release not for over three weeks, Iron man has taken in $257 million domestically and $228 million oveseas, for a staggering total of just inter $486 million; considering the film’s relatively slim $140 million budget, Iron Man stands now shoulder-to-shoulder with Spider-Man as one of Marvel Studios’ most profitable franchises.

What Happens in Vegas made just over $9 million in fourth place and then there was a huge dropoff as Speed Racer couldn’t even draw $4 million to take fifth place. Speed Races has only barely topped $36 million, contrasted to its $120 million budget, guaranteeing its stink-bomb status in this summer movie season; even with foreign box office added in, the film has barely made half of its investment back, at $61 million, and with business dropping like a rock, the best hope for producers to make their money back on Speed Racer is DVD/Blu-Ray sales.

This coming weekend is likely to be the least competitive of May, as Sex and the City and the thriller The Strangers are the only two new entries; both flicks seem unlikely to unseat Indy 4, and depending on the dynamics of the weekend, could potentially have trouble unseating Prince Caspian and Iron Man from the Top 3 spots as well.

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