Box Office: Pirates no longer at top of the world

Fantasy releases like PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: AT WORLD’S END and SHREK THE THIRD have been dominating the box office during the early portions of the summer season, but that came to an end – at least briefly – with the release of OCEAN’S THIRTEEN, which jumped to the #1 slot with an estimated opening weekend of $27.1-million.

The massive debut of the OCEAN’S movie, along with the continuing strenth of the blockbuster holdovers, spelled doom for two newcomers, SURF’S UP and HOSTEL PART II, neither of which made much of a dent.

The PIRATES sequel showed little signs of floundering, however; the third film in the trilogy (which began with PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: CURSE OF THE BLACK PEARL) dropped anchor in second place, down two berths from the #1 position it had held for two weekends. The film earned $21.3-million, raising its three-week total to $253.6-million – great numbers, but not quite so good as the previous film, PRIATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MAN’S CHEST.

The SHREK sequel, meanwhile, fell from third to fifth place, where it added another $15.8-million to its hefty four-week total of $281.9-million.

HOSTEL PART II, despite eager anticipation by blood-thirsty gorehounds, limped into sixth place for its debut. The mondo torture film managed to rack up $8.7-million in 2,350 dungeons. Expect a relatively quck and painless theatrical death, followed by an afterlife on video, where fans can pause and repeat their favorite splatter scenes over and over.

MR. BROOKS, the dark-edged murder-thriller went from #4 to #7 in its second weekend, adding $5-million to its two-week cume of $13.7-million.

SPIDER-MAN 3 is shapping up as the big film of the year. Dropping from #5 o #8, the film earned $4.4-million in its sixth weekend of release, raising its U.S. gross income to a whopping $325.7-million.

The only other genre title in the Top Ten was the sleeper hit DISTURBIA, which found itself at #10 for the second weekend in a row. The film’s ninthe weekend of release earned it another $550,000, raising its total to $77.8-million

Read the complete Top Ten here.