Dude here again, in LaLa land, a place where if you're beautiful, then get out of my hot tub. That being said, I have taken it upon myself once again to play the numbers game for you all, and report on that favorite tradition, the weekend North American Box Office grosses. And because I'm lazy, I pretty much just cut and pasted last week's article and made minor cosmetic changes. I'm still new at this, bite me.

This week not one, not two, not three, but FOUR newcomers tried to take command and make some coin. And while yes, they did make some money, it was a relatively low grossing weekend. They call these the dog days of summer (and I'm ashamed for using such a cliche) but it's true. Business slows down, more people are on vacation, and all the big names have already come and gone. And studios also tend to "dump" product they didn't feel were worthy of a big summer release. Let's go to the numbers. (All in millions, remember)

1. Four Brothers - $20.7, 2533 screens, week 1, $20.7 total
2. Skeleton Key - $15.8, 2771 screens, week 1, $15.8 total
3. Dukes of Hazzard - $13.0, 3785 screens, week 2, $57.5 total
4. Wedding Crashers - $12.0, 3131 screens, week 5, $164.0 total
5. Deuce : European Gigolo - $9.4, 3127 screens, week 1, $9.4 total
6. Charlie/Chocolate Factory - $7.3, 3304 screens, week 5, $183.8 total
7. March of the Penguins - $6.7, 2063 screens, week 8, $37.6 total
8. Sky High(DIS) - $6.1, 2807 screens, week 3, $43.3 total
9. Must Love Dogs - $4.6, 2420 screens, week 3, $34.6 total
10. The Great Raid - $3.4, 819 screens, week 1, $3.4 total

Ok, those are the numbers, so what does this all mean? Well, if you're John Singleton, you're a happy man, because people haven't given up on you yet. I guess that 2 Fast 2 Furious has been forgiven. You have a good opening weekend for a nice little revenge flick (review forthcoming, I'm seeing it later today) that seemed to tap into what people wanted to see.

If you're at Universal, or involved with the Skeleton Key at all, you're probably a little disappointed that you didn't do Grudge or Ring, or hell even Boogeyman numbers. Still, it's a respectable amount, but it's gonna have to keep up the numbers (which it probably won't, but who knows, it could prove a sleeper status) to make back it's budget.

If you're Rob Schnieder, you're probably pretty damn happy. I believe that Deuce Bigelow: Eurpoean Gigolo is quite possibly the worst reviewed film this year. (According to Rottentomatoes.com it's the 3rd worst reviewed after The Perfect Man with Hilary Duff and a film called smile I have never heard of). Still, it managed to score a nice little 9 million dollars, and seeing a how it was made for pretty cheap, Rob's is probably smiling. Although, he might be laughing at all you suckers who paid $10 to see the flick, but that would be just mean. I'm sure Mr. Schnieder is very appreciative of his fans, and is very proud of this flick.

And if you're Miramax, you probably don't give a damn, because your company is in such a state of upheaval at the moment, that you don't think twice about releasing a movie that's been on your shelf for two and a half years. You just want to get it out there before it's too late.

The other holdovers of the weekend are pretty much on par. Interest in the Duke boys went down by more than half, which is to be expected. But it's still making more money than I'll ever see in my life, so more power to it. Wedding Crashers continues to pull in sick amounts of money, but I have a feeling the audiences might dwindle next week when The 40 Year Old Virgin is released. (I've said it before, I'll say it again, the movie's fantastic. See it when it comes out, you won't be disappointed). Charlie is still enticing, and those damn penguins continue to roll along. I read that it "made history" by becoming the SECOND highest grossing documentary of all time. This is ridiculous, and I think that everyone in the numbers business has way too much free time on their hands. And besides, we all know that second place is really just the first loser. (Thanks to my old manager Jason, who 9 years ago, gave me that wonderful bon mot of wisdom).

On the indie scene, far far below the top ten list, Broken Flowers made an impressive $1.6 million on 118 screens, not bad for a movie where nothing blows up. The Aristocrats expanded it's run, and pulled in a nice $875,000 on 82 screens, none of them were AMC screens. And Grizzly Man, the OTHER animal type documentary of the summer (albeit the one that isn't great for the whole family unless you want to teach your children not to play in God's domain, or at least in a bear's) pulled in $265,000 on 29 screens. Sure, it's not multi million dollar weekends for these flicks, but it's still good considering how they're not saturated in the market, and that people are actually seeking these titles out.

There you have my wonderful break down. Next week, we get aforementioned Virgin, another CG family film that will most likely not be as good as Pixar, my future wife Rachel McAdams latest cinematic offering, and a movie about Motorcross that my roommate is making me see, claiming it'll be the next Torque. I happen to disagree with him, but have accepted going to the movie on the condition that if the movie is truly horrible, I get to kick him in the crotch repeatedly.

Until next weekend....