‘GRUDGE’ HITS $40 MILLION SO FAST IT’S SCARY

There was no match for “The Grudge” this weekend as the horror thriller starring Sarah Michelle Gellar hit $40 million, easily outstripping No. 2-ranked “Shark Tale” at $14.3 million.

The strength of the film, director Takashi Shimizu’s American version of his Japanese hit “Ju-On,” surprised competitors and studio Columbia Pictures alike. It had been expected to land at No. 1 but modestly. (See box office chart, Page 5.)

“We would have been really happy in the high teens, ecstatic at $20 million,” said Rory Bruer, Sony Pictures president of domestic distribution, which distributed the film.

Not surprisingly, fans of Gellar from her “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” days turned out for the stylized story of a virulently haunted house, with the audience skewing 55% female.

“The Grudge,” a product of Sam Raimi’s Ghost House Pictures, represents yet another profitable association between Columbia and the producer-director. Raimi’s “Spider-Man 2” has taken in $782 million thus far.

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Box Office

Preliminary results (in millions) based on studio projections.

*--* Movie 3-day gross Total The Grudge $40 $40

Shark Tale 14.3 137

Shall We Dance? 8.6 24.4

Friday Night Lights 7 47.3

Team America 6.6 22.3

Ladder 49 5.4 61.5

Surviving Christmas 4.5 4.5

Taxi 4.3 29.9

The Forgotten 3.4 62.1

I (Heart) Huckabees 3 5.9

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Source: Nielsen EDI Inc.