Box Office Information 27th-29th July 2007

In the red corner, weighing in at a combined weight of 500 donuts we have America's First Family, whilst in the blue corner, with a combined weight of 200 tonnes we have robots from another planet that can morph into automobiles. In the biggest box office showdown of the year so far, 2 giants went up against each other for the number one spot and after some fierce marketing campaigns, successful word of mouth campaigns, and the biggest UK box office weekend ever recorded, the winner was The Simpsons Movie (20th Century Fox). Taking £13.6m on opening weekend (including previews), The Simpsons Movie - which is going into its 19th season and has seen 400+ episodes on TV - dominated all international markets as well as becoming the most successful film adapted from a current TV series, although it achieved the most success here in the UK, having the 3rd highest opening weekend for an animated film on record. Featuring the usual voices of Dan Castellaneta, Nancy Cartwright, Hank Azaria and Yeardley Smith as well as a guest appearance by Tom Hanks, Homer has to undo his mistake of polluting the Springfield River with toxic waste from his "Pig Crap" silo before the town is destroyed under orders from President Schwarzenegger. Doh!

Those robots in disguise, Transformers (Paramount) put up a jolly good fight over the weekend, opening in 2nd place with £8.7m including previews. The 80s phenomenon has been bought up to date by director Michael Bay (with the help of his friend Stephen Spielberg as producer) and we see CGI at its best as the Autobots - aka the goodies, led by Optimus Prime - and the Decepticons - aka the baddies, led by Megatron - wage a war on earth to gain control of the Allspark - a cube which grants unlimited power to whoever has it. Caught in the middle of the warring robots is Sam Witwicky (Shia LeBeouf) who holds the key to the location of the Allspark and his friend Mikaela (Megan Fox), who are the last chance for the survival of the human race. Not too much pressure then! Jon Voight, John Turturro, and Josh Duhamel also star.

The magical school boy wizard and friends are putting up a strong fight for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Warner Bros.) is in 3rd place with £37.9m, with 1960s Baltimore babe Tracy Turnblad in 4th place with Hairspray (Entertainment) which has so far taken £5.5m. The 5th place position goes to Shrek The Third (Paramount), which has taken £35.8m.

The 3rd new entry into the chart is Maggie Gyllenhaal's role as Sherry Swanson in Sherrybaby (Metrodome) which took £36,036 on opening weekend across 13 sites. Sherry Swanson returns home to New Jersey after serving a three year prison sentence although eager to reestablish a relationship with her young daughter, she soon discovers that coming back to the world she left behind is far more difficult than she had planned.

Interesting film fact of the day: Sam's eBay name in the film Transformers is LadiesMan217 which refers to director Michael Bay's birthday - February 17th.

Source: CSA