The North American summer box office got a reprieve over the five day holiday weekend, as Warner Bros' The Perfect Storm led the pack to an all-time record Independence Day weekend. At Tuesday, total box office for the weekend was estimated at $193m with predictions for the seven days ending Thursday of around $235m - up from last year's record of $222.5m.

The Perfect Storm grossed a massive estimated $64m over the five day weekend - a particularly ripe period this year because many businesses were closed on Monday 3 as well as Tuesday 4 July. Its three day (Friday to Sunday) take of $41.3m was the third biggest Fourth of July opening ever after Men In Black ($51.1m in 1997) and Independence Day ($50.8m in 1996) and the highest ever July opening for Warner.

Going into the weekend, the US media had made much of the rivalry between The Perfect Storm starring George Clooney and Columbia Pictures' The Patriot, a 164-minute, R-rated Civil War epic starring Mel Gibson. However, The Patriot finished a distant second, taking $22.4m over the three days, $35.2m over the five days and $44.5m in total (it opened two days before the storm on Wednesday June 28).

But with The Perfect Storm accounting for about one third of the weekend's total gross, the chill that has set in at the US box office is far from over. Only one other film held up well - DreamWorks SKG's Chicken Run, which took $21m over the five day period.

Fox's Me Myself & Irene, once thought to be as surefire a hit as is possible, sank to fourth place in its second weekend, taking a 45% drop over the three-day period to $13.3m and $19.5m over the five days. The movie has suffered from bad reviews and poor word-of-mouth and is unlikely to top out at over $100m. It joins a growing list of summer disappointments which includes another new picture The Adventures Of Rocky And Bullwinkle which generated a miserable $11m in the five day period, Fox's $85m animated picture Titan A.E. which has just scraped past $20m, Buena Vista's animated Dinosaur which grossed over $130m yet cost closer to $200m and Miramax/Dimension's Boys And Girls, another flop Freddie Prinze Jr vehicle which failed to capture the teen audience it sought.

TOP 30 DOMESTIC RELEASES WEEKEND OF JUNE 30-JULY 2, 2000

Rank Title (Distributor)
Week - Screens - Weekend gross 30/6-2/7 - %Change - Screen Average - Total
1 (-) The Perfect Storm (Warner Bros)
1 3,407 $41,325,042 -- $12,129 $41,325,042
2 (-) The Patriot (SPE)
1 3,061 $22,413,710 -- $7,322 $31,736,362
3 (1) Me, Myself & Irene (20th Century Fox)
2 3,087 $13,329,769 -45 $4,318 $49,191,466
4 (2) Chicken Run (DreamWorks SKG)
2 2,851 $13,192,897 -25 $4,627 $41,544,644
5 (-) The Adventures Of Rocky And Bullwinkle (Universal)
1 2,460 $6,814,270 -- $2,770 $6,814,270
6 (3) Shaft (Paramount)
3 2,433 $6,665,815 -48 $2,740 $53,436,289
7 (5) Big Momma's House (20th Century Fox)
5 2,392 $6,063,039 -29 $2,535 $95,318,146
8 (4) Gone In 60 Seconds (Buena Vista)
4 2,651 $5,320,271 -44 $2,007 $78,908,295
9 (6) Mission: Impossible 2 (Paramount)
6 2,667 $4,909,248 -35 $1,841 $197,083,711
10 (7) Gladiator (DreamWorks SKG)
9 1,411 $2,426,872 -37 $1,720 $169,753,300
11 (11) Dinosaur (Buena Vista)
7 1,389 $1,404,282 -57 $1,011 $129,988,604
12 (10) Boys And Girls (Miramax)
3 1,601 $1,342,473 -58 $839 $17,805,799
13 (9) Titan AE (20th Century Fox)
3 1,922 $1,227,227 -67 $639 $20,071,363
14 (12) Shanghai Noon (Buena Vista)
6 790 $715,032 -64 $905 $53,367,433
15 (13) Road Trip (DreamWorks SKG)
7 801 $713,905 -53 $891 $65,244,678
16 (14) Fantasia 2000 (Buena Vista)
26 1,313 $692,841 -53 $528 $57,226,033
17 (21) Croupier (TSG)
11 116 $457,886 46 $3,947 $2,105,803
18 (18) Michael Jordan To The Max (Giant Screen Sports)
9 50 $412,876 1 $8,258 $6,326,968
19 (20) Sunshine (Paramount Classics)
4 76 $312,914 -10 $4,117 $1,040,696
20 (15) Small Time Crooks (DreamWorks SKG)
7 249 $227,090 -59 $912 $16,203,231
21 (17) U-571 (Universal)
11 337 $203,885 -59 $605 $75,359,960
22 (re) Rules Of Engagement (Paramount)
13 452 $202,870 495 $449 $60,657,391
23 (24) Cirque Soleil: Journey Of Man (Sony Classics)
9 20 $200,443 11 $10,022 $2,691,533
24 (19) The Flinstones In Viva Rock Vegas (Universal)
10 356 $197,580 -38 $555 $33,673,585
25 (16) Frequency (New Line)
10 312 $193,459 -63 $620 $43,096,330
26 (23) Erin Brockovich (Universal)
16 291 $186,240 -31 $640 $124,639,560
27 (27) Mysteries Of Egypt (Destination Cinema)
109 17 $182,525 6 $10,737 $35,733,207
28 (28) T-Rex: Back To The Cretaceous (Imax)
89 21 $146,028 9 $6,954 $31,222,744
29 (25) Where The Heart Is (20th Century Fox)
10 263 $139,324 -40 $530 $32,737,741
30 (22) Keeping The Faith (Buena Vista)
12 260 $133,567 -47 $514 $36,527,772

TOTAL:
37,056 (number of screens)
$131,753,380 (weekend total)
$3,555 (per screen average)
$1,610,831,956 (year to date)

Chart source: AC Neilsen EDI Inc