Box Office

What happens when a movie premieres and nobody’s there to see it? For ”Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star”, that meant a piddling $6.7 million gross — still enough for it to eke out a win on the slowest weekend in more than a year. Though the comedy triumphed over all newcomers (including the Heath Ledger spiritual thriller, ”The Order”, which bowed at a weak No. 6), its opening trailed that of David Spade’s last vehicle, ”Joe Dirt”, which made $8 million in April 2001. Meanwhile, Universal now boasts five summer movies — ”Bruce Almighty”, ”2 Fast 2 Furious”, ”The Hulk”, ”Seabiscuit”, and ”American Wedding” — that have passed the $100 million mark. Thanks go out to God, a green giant, and doggie doo.

TOP 20 WEEKEND NUMBER WEEKEND WEEKS GROSS GROSS* OF PER-SITE IN TO SITES AVERAGE RELEASE DATE 1 DICKIE ROBERTS $6.7 2,026 $3,288 1 $6.7 2 JEEPERS CREEPERS 2 $6.6 3,124 $2,101 2 $27.3 3 PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN $5.3 2,203 $2,393 9 $281.3 4 FREAKY FRIDAY $5.0 2,973 $1,695 5 $97.1 5 S.W.A.T. $4.6 2,600 $1,758 5 $108.8 6 THE ORDER $4.4 1,975 $2,248 1 $4.4 7 OPEN RANGE $4.2 2,268 $1,853 4 $49.3 8 SEABISCUIT $3.7 2,573 $1,440 7 $109.6 9 FREDDY VS. JASON $3.2 2,505 $1,295 4 $78.3 10 UPTOWN GIRLS $2.5 2,031 $1,215 4 $33.6 11 AMERICAN WEDDING $2.2 1,514 $1,450 6 $100.7 12 THE MEDALLION $2.2 2,180 $1,001 3 $19.8 13 THE ITALIAN JOB $1.8 1,487 $1,180 15 $103.3 14 MY BOSS’S DAUGHTER $1.8 1,892 $927 3 $13.8 15 SPY KIDS 3-D: GAME OVER $1.1 1,825 $592 7 $108.9 16 BAD BOYS II $1.0 741 $1,380 8 $136.4 17 LE DIVORCE $1.0 674 $1,413 5 $7.6 18 WHALE RIDER $0.9 556 $1,607 14 $18.1 19 DIRTY PRETTY THINGS $0.9 493 $1,730 8 $5.8 20 FINDING NEMO $0.8 903 $891 15 $333.8

SOURCE: NIELSEN EDI. WEEKEND OF SEPT. 5 — SEPT. 7 *WEEKEND-GROSS AND GROSS-TO-DATE FIGURES IN MILLIONS INCLUDES SOME MULTISCREEN THEATERS AND PRINTS SHIPPED AS WELL AS INDIVIDUAL SCREENS

BILL MURRAY Select Films NUMBER OPENING DOMESTIC OF WEEKEND* GROSS* SITES 12/14/01 THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS 5 $0.3 $52.4 11/3/00 CHARLIE’S ANGELS 3,037 $40.1 $125.3 2/5/99 RUSHMORE 103 $1.8 $17.1 11/1/96 LARGER THAN LIFE 2,433 $3.8 $8.3 9/27/94 ED WOOD 2 $0.07 $5.9 2/12/93 GROUNDHOG DAY 1,640 $12.5 $70.9 6/16/89 GHOSTBUSTERS II 2,410 $29.5 $112.5 6/8/84 GHOSTBUSTERS 1,339 $13.6 $238.6 7/80 CADDYSHACK N/A N/A $39.6 6/29/79 MEATBALLS N/A N/A $43.0