Wow! The new release Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer blew the doors off the box office this weekend with its earnings of an impressive $57.4 million and easily took the number one spot on the charts. I’m not surprised at all that it took first place, but I wouldn’t have expected such a high return on the first weekend. I’d guess the cast is glad they put plenty of time in for all of those premiere events. The other new releases didn’t do so well. The kid friendly movie, Nancy Drew, came in at #7 with $7.1 million, which seems like a low number for what should have been a pre-sold movie considering it’s lengthy existence in print. I guess it did have a stack of animated kids’ movies (Surf’s Up & Shrek the Third) to compete with as well though. The slightly oddball looking horror-comedy Fido didn’t rank in the top 12 movies this weekend, but I believe it may have actually only been a limited release anyways. I am very glad to report that DOA: Dead or Alive didn’t hit the charts either. I’d be willing to wager that it actually lost money when the one guy that accidentally walked in, watched 30 seconds, and then demanding his money back along with compensation for pain and suffering.

If you missed any of the background on the new releases check out our Weekend Movie Preview with trailers and details.

Box office earnings for movies this weekend, June 15 - 17, 2007:

1. “Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer” $57.4 million
2. “Ocean’s Thirteen” $19.1 million
3. “Knocked Up” $14.5 million
4. “Pirates of the Caribbean 3: At World’s End” $12 million
5. “Surf’s Up” $9.3 million
6. “Shrek the Third” $9 million
7. “Nancy Drew” $7.1 million
8. “Hostel Part II” $3 million
9. “Mr. Brooks” $2.8 million
10. “Spider-Man 3″ $2.5 million

So when do you think we’ll get that third and fourth Fantastic Four movie?? Seems like a sure thing now.