‘The Fog’ rolls in -- to filmgoers’ delight

It was a tight race at the box office this weekend, led by horror-film remake “The Fog” with an estimated $12.2 million, just ahead of the $11.7 million that DreamWorks estimated for the second weekend of “Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit,” and Cameron Crowe’s “Elizabethtown” at No. 3 with $11 million, according to Paramount.

Business for “The Fog” (whose audience was 53% female, 61% under age 25) was up 24% Saturday over Friday, unusual for a horror film, while “Elizabethtown” (75% female, split evenly over and under 25) saw Saturday ticket sales increase 5%. New release “Domino” opened at No. 6 with $4.7 million, New Line said Sunday.

Among films in limited release, “Good Night, and Good Luck” and “Capote” did solid business (about $20,000 and $12,000 per theater, respectively, as Warner Independent and Sony Pictures Classics increased locations to 68 and 30), while “The Squid and the Whale” expanded to L.A. The Sony/IDP release averaged about $11,000 per venue in 27 theaters.

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Box Office

Preliminary results (in millions) based on studio projections.

*--* Movie 3-day gross Total The Fog $12.2 $12.2

Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit 11.7 33.3

Elizabethtown 11.0 11.0

Flightplan 6.5 70.8

In Her Shoes 6.1 20.1

Domino 4.7 4.7

Two for the Money 4.6 16.5

A History of Violence 3.6 22.4

Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride 3.5 47.7

The Gospel 3.2 12.2

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Source: Nielsen EDI Inc.

Los Angeles Times