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While last week went on, it was becoming clear that the weekend opener for "Sex and the City" was going to be significant in that at some ticket outlets 92 percent of sales went for the film. But with almost half the population being not interested in seeing the film, it wasn't expected to beat out the 2nd week of Indiana Jones, but it did just that.

For the weekend, the film earned a solid $55.7 million at 3,285 venues. That's a strong $16,968 average.

The problem it now faces is it the anticipation is obviously gone, and the film will plunge in viewers next weekend, as it will be the typical front-loaded movie. Even so, the strong showing will help the film perform strongly for New Line Cinema, and more than make up for its $65 million budget domestically.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull came in second place, dropping by 54 percent, to take in $46 million in its second weekend.

With most major people in the industry believing the film would retain its No. 1 spot this weekend, it's somewhat of a disappointment for them to see it end up in second place, and with that large of a percentage of a drop.
 
Another surprise for the weekend was the third-place finish of "The  Strangers," which was thought to be a throw-away film. It underscores the inaccuracy of tracking this year, as this film outperformed tracking by three times what was projected, generating $20.7 million in sales.

Last year at this time, box office sales were at $3.82 billion, while this year they come in at $3.7 billion; down by 3 percent in revenue, and 6 percent in ticket sales.
 
The top 10 for the weekend:

Other Box Office Sites:

Box Office Guru

Box Office

Box Office Prophets

Box Office Mojo

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