Lady in the Water bombs

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By Scott Bowles, USA TODAY
Lady in the Water arrived dead in it.
The M. Night Shyamalan fairy tale, which marked a departure in the director's filmmaking style and a very public split from the studio that propelled his career, opened to a meager $18.2 million and third place, according to estimates from Nielsen EDI.

The opening was easily the smallest for Shyamalan's big-studio suspense films and was considered a vindication of Disney executives, who parted ways with the director after a clash of egos and tastes. Disney had produced his hits The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, Signs and The Village. Shortly after the split, Shyamalan signed with Warner Bros.

Executives throughout Hollywood were watching ticket sales over the weekend to see which studio had made the right choice over the $70 million movie, which earned recommendations from only one-fifth of the nation's critics, according to the movie review site rottentomatoes.com.

"This fell short of expectations," says Dan Fellman, distribution chief for Warner Bros. "We had difficulty with the press, and it may have been too sophisticated."

But Fellman added that the studio did not regret signing Shyamalan. "Everyone has a film that doesn't live up to expectations. I'm sure he'll bounce back, and we're glad to be in business with him."

Disney had no comment on the film, partly because it was busy celebrating the success of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, which held No. 1 for the third consecutive weekend with $35 million.

The movie has taken in $321.7 million and crossed $300 million in 15 days, the fastest film to reach that mark. The previous fastest was last year's Star Wars, Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, which crossed the mark in 17 days.

Pirates also became the first film of the year to hold the No. 1 spot for three consecutive weekends and the last since last November's Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

The animated film Monster House was a strong second, taking in $23 million in its debut. You, Me and Dupree was fourth with $12.8 million, followed by Little Man with $11 million.

As for the other newcomers, Clerks II did as projected, $9.6 million for sixth, and My Super Ex-Girlfriend did a disappointing $8.7 million for seventh.

Ticket sales for the top 10 movies were up 17% over the same weekend last year. Final figures are out Monday.