..Gary Dretzka
..Noah Forrest
..Leonard Klady
..David Poland
..Douglas Pratt
..Ray Pride
..Kim Voynar
..Michael Wilmington

June 25, 2006 Weekend Estimates Worldwide Grosses Domestic Market Share Click ... Clack ... The Adam Sandler fantasy-comedy Click bowed to an estimated $39.7 million to top weekend movie going charts. However, the frame's big surprise was an unexpectedly potent debut for the urban thriller Waist Deep of $9.2 million that ranked fourth in the lineup. And another puzzler was Wordplay that filled in the blank spaces in 45 niche engagements. Despite tracking reports that suggested a $40 million debut for Click, exhibition sources remained confident the Adam Sandler vehicle would surpass polling that historically rarely gets it right. It was a solid launch but in a season where the majority of high profile releases haven't quite lived up to expectations, the desire for a picture that hits it out of the ballpark has ramped up considerably. Despite the upbeat advance word on Superman Returns, one senses a palpable anxiety about the picture's performance during the upcoming Independence holiday weekend. Even with the Pirates of the Caribbean sequel in the wings, the Man of Steel picture has been singled out as movie that could make or break the torrid summer season. Waist Deep entered the fray with no more than a modest anticipation of genre strength that might translate into a $5 million gross. Unheralded and lacking a powerhouse ad campaign the yarn of kidnapping and revenge had all the markings of a summer programmer that would fill in the gaps between seasonal blockbusters. Though expected to have a steep sophomore frame drop, its opening salvo ensures it of a considerably enhanced theatrical vitality. Weekend revenues should click in with roughly $140 million in ticket sales for a 12% decline from the immediate prior weekend. Box office was however 6% ahead of 2005 when the second frame of Batman Returns grossed $27.6 million and the premiere of Bewitched ranked second with $20.1 million. Sophomore frames of both Nacho Libre and The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift experienced steep drops of around 60% while The Lake House and Garfield sequel proved more resilient with erosion of less than 40%. The session also inducted The Break-Up into the now over populated $100 million club and both A Prairie Home Companion and An Inconvenient Truth continued to hold their own as alternative multiplex fare. New entries in niche play included respectable debuts for the docudrama The Road to Guantanamo and the indie entry The Great New Wonderful. There was also encouraging single screen bows for Wassup Rockers and the concert-profile outing Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man. However, the appeal of Wordplay uttered nary a cross word. Upping the ante from two to 45 locations, the favorite American pastime translated well from newspaper to big screen with an average of almost $7,000 and a weekend gross of roughly $310,000. It definitely is shaping up as a commercial successor to spelling bee outing Spellbound and a challenge for an aficionado producer to adapt into a fiction movie. - by Leonard Klady Weekend Estimates - June 23-25, 2006 Title Distributor Gross (average) % change Theaters Cume Click Sony 39.7 (10,550) - 3749 39.7 Cars BV 22.9 (5,790) -32% 3949 156.2 Nacho Libre Par 11.9 (3,860) -58% 3083 52.4 Waist Deep Focus 9.2 (9,140) - 1004 9.2 Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drifr Uni 9.1 (3,010) -62% 3030 42.5 The Lake House WB 8.3 (3,150) -39% 2645 29.3 The Break-Up Uni 6.1 (2,080) -38% 2907 103.7 Garfield: A Tale of Two Kitties Fox 4.8 (1,600) -34% 2981 16.1 X-Men: The Last Stand Fox 4.5 (1,850) -43% 2408 224.1 The Da Vinci Code Sony 3.9 (2,060) -25% 1911 205.5 Over the Hedge Par 2.8 (1,370) -37% 2007 144.5 A Prairie Home Companion Picturehouse 2.2 (2,870) -24% 752 12.4 The Omen Fox 2.1 (990) -63% 2107 52 An Inconvenient Truth Par Classics 1.9 (3,660) -2% 514 9.5 Mission: Impossible III Par .74 (1,340) -45% 552 131.5 Weekend Total ($500,000+ Films) $130.00 - - - % Change (Last Year) - 6% - - - % Change (Last Week) - -12% - - - Also debuting/expanding Wordplay IFC .31 (6,930) 845% 45 0.36 The Road to Guantanamo IDP 60,400 (4,030) - 15 0.06 The Great New Wonderful First Indeendent 38,500 (4,810) - 8 0.04 Wassaup Rockers First Look 29,050 (29,050) - 1 0.03 Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man Lions Gate 16,700 (16,700) - 1 0.02 Two Drifters Strand 5,600 (5,600) - 1 0.01 The Hidden Blade Tartan 4,200 (4,200) - 1 0.01 Top Limited Grosses: January 1 - June 22, 2006 Match Point DmWks 23,052,317 Deep Sea 3-D WB 11,861,080 Mrs. Henderson Presents Weinstein Co. 10,662,712 Transamerica Weinstein Co. 8,771,637 Good Night, and Good Luck WIP 8,203,593 An Inconvenient Truth Par Classics 7,613,606 Magnificent Desolation Imax 6,496,800 The World's Fastest Indian Magnolia 5,120,660 Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada Sony Classics 4,996,040 The Libertine Weinstein Co. 4,773,768 Cache (Hidden) Sony Class/Alliance 3,732,437 Roving Mars BV 3,729,400 Keeping Up with the Steins Mrmx 3,506,924 Wild Safari 3-D nWave 3,190,581 Tsotsi Mrmx 2,905,200 Water Fox SearchMongrel 2,834,463 La Mujer de Mi Hermano Lions Gate 2,808,241 The Squid and the Whale IDP 2,324,489 Rang De Basanti UTV 2,197,694 Brick Focus 1,936,248  does not include 2005 box office |  none greater than 522 theaters Domestic Market Share: January 1 - June 15, 2006 Fox (15) 768.9 18.50% Sony (16) 695.6 16.70% Buena Vista (16) 525.6 12.60% Paramount (9) 479.3 11.50% Universal (12) 476.4 11.40% Warner Bros. (12) 321.4 7.70% Weinstein Co. (9) 190.9 4.60% Lions Gate (11) 166.2 4.00% New Line (7) 119.1 2.90% Focus (7) 101.5 2.40% Fox Searchlight (7) 95.7 2.30% Sony Classics (13) 47.3 1.10% DreamWorks (3) 24.7 0.60% MGM (1) 22.5 0.50% Other * (147) 132.6 3.20% * none greater than 0.4% 4167.7 100.00%