Wham! Ben Stiller beaned the box office.
His revenge-of-the-nerds sport-of-sorts comedy Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story slammed all comers at the box office with $30.1 million, according final studio figures released Monday.
Dodgeball's strong debut floored Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg's The Terminal, which only checked in with an unimpressive $19.1 million in second, and kept Jackie Chan's remake of Around the World in 80 Days from getting off the ground, with just $7.6 million in ninth place.
Dodgeball, a PG-13 Fox release, bounced into 2,694 sites, where it averaged $11,162. The goofball goings-on, featuring Stiller as an obnoxious pumped-up fitness coach squaring off against Vince Vaughn's team of misfits, scored big with boys of all ages over the Father's Day weekend.
With the movie surpassing its $20 million budget, Fox honcho Bruce Snyder gloated to Reuters about the "huge beyond expectations" opening, saying, "People were ready to laugh."
The Terminal, a PG-13 DreamWorks release, landed in 2,811 sites, where it only averaged $6,778, despite all the big names involved in its production. Aside from Hanks, playing an immigrant living inside an airport, the movie also stars Catherine Zeta-Jones as a lovelorn flight attendant and Stanley Tucci as a dour government official. The film debuted way below Spielberg's previous DreamWorks release, Catch Me If You Can, starring Hanks and Leonardo DiCaprio, which opened with $30 million in December 2002.
DreamWorks executive Jim Tharp tried to spin it, telling Reuters, "Smart, high-concept movies can be difficult to open" but often hold up over the long run. With a budget upwards of $60 million to recoup, Tharp better hope so.
Not even Disney could find a positive spin to the disastrous, DOA debut of the PG-rated Around the World in 80 Days, which reportedly cost north of $115 million to produce. The Jules Verne-based film, a remake of the 1956 Oscar winner--this time starring Brit funnyguy Steve Coogan as adventurer Phileas Fogg and Chan as trusty sidekick Passepartout, along with Luke and Owen Wilson, Arnold Schwarzenneger, Kathy Bates, Rob Schneider and Jim Broadbent--bombed into 2,801 theaters, where it averaged a woeful $2,705 between Friday and Sunday. Since opening Wednesday, 80 Days has only earned $10.4 million.
In its third week Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban dropped from the top slot to third place. Warners' kid wizard's third adventure was off 48 percent from last week, conjuring up $18 million to bring its total to $190.9 million.
Not bad, but nothing compared to Shrek 2. In its fifth week the ogre fable only dropped one slot and 40 percent, earning $13.9 million in fourth place. The DreamWorks 'toon has totaled $378.6 million to move into sixth place on the all-time domestic box-office list, moving ahead of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King's $377 million.
The biggest dropoff belonged to Vin Diesel's The Chronicles of Riddick, which fell 61 percent from its second-place opening last week to a sixth-place $9.4 million.
In limited release the highest per-screen average belonged to Paramount Classic's R-rated I'll Sleep When I'm Dead. The British crime caper, starring Clive Owen and directed by Mike Hodges, averaged $6,708 at just two sites to tally $13,415.
Overall the top 12 movies grossed $130.6 million, an 8 percent decline for this time last year, which was not Fathers' Day, but witnessed the $62.1 million debut of The Hulk. Revenues were also down 15 percent from last weekend.
Here is a rundown of the top 10 films, as compiled by Exhibitor Relations:
1. Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, $30.1 million
2. The Terminal, $19.1 million
3. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, $18 million
4. Shrek 2, $13.9 million
5. Garfield: The Movie, $11.3 million
6. The Chronicles of Riddick, $9.4 million
7. The Stepford Wives, $8.8 million
8. The Day After Tomorrow, $8.1 million
9. Around the World in 80 Days, $7.6 million
10. Troy, $1.8 million
(Originally published June 20, 2004 at 12:45 p.m. PT.)