..Gary Dretzka
..Leonard Klady
..David Poland
..Doug Pratt
..Ray Pride

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%