'FANTASTIC' OPENING TOPS $57 MILLION OVERALL SUMMER BOX OFFICE NUMBERS STILL DOWN.

Byline: GREG HERNANDEZ

Staff Writer

When delivering the news that 20th Century Fox's "Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer" had an opening weekend of $57.4 million, the studio's Chris Aronson couldn't help but repeatedly use the word "fantastic."

"It is truly fantastic and we really are ecstatic," said Aronson, Fox's senior vice president of distribution. "This is bigger and better than the first one and it worked everywhere from small towns to big cities, from ages 8 to 80."

The debut, the fourth-highest June opening in history, was on par with the first "Fantastic Four" movie two summers ago but was not enough to prevent a third consecutive weekend of down receipts for the movie business.

"It's hard to call it a bad weekend with the top movie at $57 million," said box office analyst Paul Dergarabedian, president of Media By Numbers. "But in this business, it's all about compare and contrast, and compared with last year, we've been down three weeks in a row."

As a result, year-to-date attendance, which was nearly 5 percent ahead of 2006 just last month, is now in a dead heat. Not helping matters was Warner Bros' "Nancy Drew," which had a lackluster opening of just $7.1 million. But the studio is hopeful that weekday business will help boost grosses with kids now out of school.

"I think word-of-mouth will be very kind to 'Nancy Drew,'" said Dan Fellman, Warner's president of domestic distribution.

The strong opening for "Fantastic Four" relegated Warner's "Ocean's Thirteen" to second place with an estimated gross of $19.1 million. Although the third installment of the franchise opened slightly below its predecessors, it has now outpaced them in its first 10 days with a total of $69.9 million.

But holding up even better is the Universal Pictures' comedy "Knocked Up," which finished in third place with estimated ticket sales of $14.5 million. The film has taken in $90.5 million to date.

Fourth-place "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End" continued its march toward the $300 million milestone by grossing another $12 million for a $273.7 million domestic total so far.

Rounding out the top five was Sony's animated "Surf's Up," which continued to get squeezed out by other films. In its second weekend, it grossed an estimated $9.3 million and has a 10-day total of $34.7 million.

"We've had very solid weekdays but let's face it, there's a lot of competition vying for the same demographic with 'Fantastic Four,' rated PG, and the 'Ratatouille' sneaks," said Rory Bruer, Sony's president of domestic distribution.

"Ratatouille," the Disney/Pixar Animation film out June 29, sneak-previewed in more than 800 theaters Saturday night.

greg.hernandez(at)dailynews.com

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