Fairytale Bow OUATIM
Once Upon a Time in Mexico, shot up the box office over the weekend as it debuted with an impressive $24 million.
The final edition of the El Mariachi trilogy, starring Antonio Banderas as a musical gunfighter and Johnny Depp as a shady CIA agent, was the top movie of the weekend. The tally brings the flick, which was penned and directed by Robert Rodriguez as a sequel to El Mariachi and Desperado, neck-and-neck with the Desperado's $25.4 million gross in 1995.
Many movie gurus credit the film's success to Depp's prominent big-screen presence over the summer. The actor now has two movies in the top five. His swashbuckling surprise hit Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl pulled in $4.6 million over the weekend to take the No. 5 slot. So far, it has grossed a whopping $288 million, second only to Finding Nemo as the summer's top moneymaker.
"Johnny Depp's career has been very interesting but he's normally not in the big blockbusters," Paul Dergarabedian, president of box office tracker Exhibitor Relations Co., told the Associated Press.
"Suddenly, he's in the No. 1 and No. 5 movie in the same weekend. For any actor that's great, and for Johnny Depp it's totally unexpected and welcome."
Coming in a Nos. 2 and 3 were two other debut films. Matchstick Men, the Nicolas Cage father-daughter con movie, pulled in a relatively mediocre $13.3 million, while horror flick Cabin Fever took in $8.5 million.
All of this was bad news for last weekend's box office champ (and current Slip 'N Slide lawsuit recipient) Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star. The David-Spade-starring flick slipped to No. 4 and garnered a measly $5 million.
The Once Upon a Time-led box office was good news for theaters. Last week, they were lamenting poor post-summer sales as ticket sales dropped 38 percent from the prior week. This week's total for the top 12 films leapt up by 45 percent and pulled in $73.5 million.