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''Miami'' takes on ''Pirates'' | 164926__vicebor_l
A NEW 'VICE': Foxx and Farrell take on Depp and discharge Captain Jack Sparrow after three weeks at No. 1
By Dave Karger
Dave Karger
Dave Karger
Dave Karger, a senior writer at EW, also reports on box office and other movie- related matters on NBC's ''Today''

Miami Vice may have dethroned Pirates of the Caribbean to capture the top spot at the box office, but it was a bit closer than many would have expected.

Michael Mann's update of the seminal 1980s TV series, starring Jamie Foxx and Colin Farrell, premiered with $25.2 million, according to studio estimates. While good enough for No. 1, that figure pales in comparison to Foxx's last opening, Jarhead, which grossed $27.7 million last fall. And it's way below the $37.1 million take of Farrell's last wide summer release, S.W.A.T. Still, Vice counts as Foxx's fourth $20 million-plus debut in the last two years (following Collateral, Ray, and Jarhead).

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, meanwhile, slipped 42 percent to $20.5 million in its fourth weekend, bringing its total to an amazing $358.4 million. It currently stands at No. 11 on the list of all-time domestic grossers, and in the next week it will unseat The Passion of the Christ ($370.8 million) for tenth place. (Not a great week for Mel Gibson, huh?)

In a big surprise, third place went to John Tucker Must Die, a teen comedy starring Desperate Housewives' costar Jesse Metcalfe. I didn't think the flick would even crack the top five, but young fans turned up to the tune of $14.1 million.

After its strong debut last week, Monster House fell 48 percent to $11.5 million, while Warner Bros.' new computer-animated film The Ant Bully, featuring the voices of Julia Roberts, Nicolas Cage, and Meryl Streep, premiered with an embarrassingly low $8.1 million. That makes it one of the worst computer-animated opening weekends ever, behind even 2001's flop Final Fantasy, which debuted with $11.4 million. The lesson here: Even with an A-list voice cast, unless you're Disney or DreamWorks (or possibly Fox thanks to Ice Age), it's not easy to get families to take a chance on a cartoon.


Posted Jul 30, 2006 | Order Article Reprints