Getting To 'First'

Audiences fell for Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore’s Groundhog Day-esque amnesiac romantic comedy, 50 First Dates, whose four-day, $45.1 million finish just barely edged past Daredevil’s $45 million record for the best Presidents’ Day weekend opening ever. As for last week’s champs, Miracle virtually achieved just that, holding on to all but a scant 12 percent of its audience at No. 2, while Barbershop 2 got clipped, falling to No. 3. Omar Sharif’s Monsieur Ibrahim (No. 52) fared well for a foreign indie, bowing with a $9,385 average. And having earned $357.4 million, The Return of the King has now passed Jurassic Park as the sixth-highest domestic grosser of all time.

NUMBER WEEKEND WEEKS GROSS WEEKEND OF PER-SITE IN TO TOP 20 GROSS* SITES+ AVERAGE RELEASE DATE

1 50 FIRST DATES $45.1 3,591 $12,561 1 $45.1 2 MIRACLE $17.0 2,755 $6,174 2 $40.1 3 BARBERSHOP 2 $16.5 2,711 $6,087 2 $45.0 4 YOU GOT SERVED $6.0 1,832 $3,288 3 $33.0 5 THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT $6.0 2,288 $2,605 4 $49.2 6 CATCH THAT KID $5.9 2,848 $2,064 2 $12.4 7 ALONG CAME POLLY $5.5 2,543 $2,145 5 $82.0 8 LOTR: THE RETURN $5.1 1,663 $3,061 9 $357.4 OF THE KING 9 MYSTIC RIVER $4.3 1,370 $3,145 19 $75.3 10 COLD MOUNTAIN $3.9 1,740 $2,263 8 $87.8 11 MONSTER $3.8 1,093 $3,485 8 $20.3 12 SOMETHING’S GOTTA GIVE $3.0 1,019 $2,922 10 $119.3 13 BIG FISH $2.9 1,224 $2,396 10 $63.4 14 CHEAPER BY THE DOZEN $2.4 1,335 $1,834 8 $134.3 15 LOST IN TRANSLATION $1.7 600 $2,915 23 $42.1 16 MASTER AND COMMANDER $1.2 547 $2,277 14 $91.3 17 GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING $1.2 374 $3,140 10 $7.5 18 CALENDAR GIRLS $1.1 814 $1,374 9 $28.7 19 THE PERFECT SCORE $1.1 2,012 $554 3 $10.0 20 IN AMERICA $1.0 334 $2,888 12 $12.4

SOURCE: NIELSEN EDI. WEEKEND OF FEB. 13-16 * WEEKEND-GROSS AND GROSS-TO-DATE FIGURES IN MILLIONS + INCLUDES SOME MULTISCREEN THEATERS AND PRINTS SHIPPED AS WELL AS INDIVIDUAL SCREENS

BOXING MOVIES OPENING NUMBER DOMESTIC Top Grossers WEEKEND* OF SITES GROSS

11/27/85 ROCKY IV $20.0 1,325 $127.9 5/28/82 ROCKY III $16.0** 939 $122.8 11/21/76 ROCKY N/A N/A $117.2 6/15/79 ROCKY II N/A N/A $79.2 12/25/01 ALI $14.7 2,446 $58.2 12/29/99 THE HURRICANE $10.5 1,454 $50.7 1979 THE MAIN EVENT N/A N/A $42.8 11/16/90 ROCKY V $14.1 2,053 $40.9 1979 THE CHAMP N/A N/A $28.0 11/14/80 RAGING BULL N/A N/A $22.5

SOURCE: EXHIBITOR RELATIONS CO., INC. *OPENING-GROSS AND DOMESTIC-GROSS FIGURES IN MILLIONS **FOUR-DAY OPENING