"I need help, 'cause I wanna see it anyway. Somebody stop me." This was the first quote on the comment board for our review of Fantastic Four: Rise Of The Silver Surfer, and perhaps the best explanation for why a sequel to a movie that nobody seemed to like just raked in $57.4 million on opening weekend. Rather than appease the comic book fans who took umbrage with the notion of world-eater Galactus appearing as a cloud, Silver Surfer has clearly gone for the kiddie set with its PG rating and the gambit appears to be paying off. It faces a stiff challenge for that allowance money this weekend, however, when the $175 million behemoth Evan Almighty chases a similar audience.
In an otherwise quiet weekend at the box office, Nancy Drew opened a distant seventh at $7.1 million, suggesting that the nation's nine-to-twelve-year-old girls were too busy with slumber parties and giggle fits to make much of an impact. And because a week can't go by without The A.V. Club blowing kisses to Judd Apatow, it's worth nothing that Knocked Up continues to be the only summer movie that hasn't completely dropped off the table after opening weekend; losing just 26% of its audience from last week, the film leap-frogged Pirates Of The Caribbean: At World's End to take another $14.5 million and looks to cruise past the $100 million plateau next week.
For more detailed numbers, visit Box Office Mojo.