Box Office

From Darkhorizons, "In spite of strong protests from Church groups, a 2.5 hour run time limiting sessions, and a flood of intense bad word of mouth from critics last week, that didn't stop "The Da Vinci Code" juggernaut from raking it in big at the box-office this weekend.

Sony's estimates have the film landing $77 million for the three days and many think the actual total will be a tad higher as it takes into account an expected big drop on Sunday that may not happen. Despite its wide release over almost 4000 screens, the film also managed to pull in a whopping $20,615 per screen average.

With only little buzz, Dreamworks CG animated comedy "Over the Hedge" managed to benefit from the influx of business as well, opening to a truly excellent $37 million and a strong $9,171 per screen take across just over 4000 screens. The WWE star Kane's new action vehicle "See No Evil" managed well, taking in just over half its $8 million budget on opening weekend.

The hogging of business by the new titles meant existing releases dropped all across the board including recent strong performer "RV" (down 48.7%) and other major blockbusters like MI3 (down 56.0%) and "Poseidon" (down 58.5%) - the former already considered a disappointment, the later one of the Summer biggest bombs.

Of the slips only two films managed to keep floating a little - dark comedy "Thank You for Smoking" (down 42.1%) and most surprisingly Lindsay Lohan comedy "Just My Luck" (down 40.7%) which opened horribly last week."