Box Office Receipts: June 29 - July 1

Well, folks, the weekend grosses have been tallied and we have a winner: Ratatouille! Unfortunately, just because it's the top dog (or rat) doesn't mean it's a total success, as this is Pixar's lowest-grossing opening weekend since A Bug's Life, and second straight film to have an opening weekend worse than the previous film (The Incredibles opened with $70 million while Cars followed with an opening of $60 million). Here's to hoping that Ratatouille has legs and can surpass the $100 million mark, as the people behind films such as Toy Story and Finding Nemo deserve more from a general public used to watching such animated drivel as Shrek the Third.

As for the other new releases, Live Free or Die Hard kicked ass and took names (while also proving that it's "not too old for this shit"), walloping 1995's Die Hard With A Vengeance opening bow of $22 million and raking in over $50 million since its opening. Expect an announcement by next weekend that Fox has greenlit the next sequel, titled Die Hardest While Living Through Vengeance: Evolutions: At World's End: Vs. Jason.

Michael Moore's Sicko opened in limited release, but still managed to find itself in a very healthy position as audiences coughed up a per-theatre average of $10,000. Look for this film to expand its release, along with Moore's bank account - and in turn, his waistline. Maybe his next "documentary" could follow the weights of himself, Morgan Spurlock, and Jared from Subway, leading to the shocking revelation that George W. Bush is the reason people are fat. Or maybe they'll just use their 15 minutes to lose 15 pounds on "Celebrity Fit Club."

As for the huge flop known as Evening, well...the less said about that, the better. Let's just say that the 'sun has set' on this film...get it? I don't either.

This upcoming week will be a fierce battle for first place, as the huge summer blockbuster, License to Wed, will attempt to crush some little-known independent drama called Transformers. I'm kidding, people. Look for Transformers to pull in the biggest weekend opening of the summer since Pirates of the Caribbean: AWE.

1. Ratatouille - $47.2 Million
2. Live Free or Die Hard - $33.2 Million
3. Evan Almighty - $15.1 Million
4. 1408 - $10.6 Million
5. Fantastic Four: RotSS - $9 Million
6. Knocked Up - $7.4 Million
7. Ocean's 13 - $6.1 Million
8. Pirates of the Caribbean: AWE - $5 Million
9. Sicko - $4.5 Million
10. Evening - $3.5 Million

So, how did my predictions stack up against the real results?

BOX OFFICE PREDICTIONS, JUNE 29 - JULY 1

1. Ratatouille, $55 million
2. Live Free or Die Hard, $36 million
3. Evan Almighty, $14 million
4. 1408, $10 million
5. Fantastic Four: RotSS, $9 million
6. Ocean's Thirteen, $7 million
7. Sicko, $6 million
8. Pirates of the Caribbean: AWE, $4 million
9. Evening, $3 million
10. Shrek the Third, $3 million

Using my DeLorean, I was able to travel into the future and correctly identify the top 5 films while coming within a few million of their eventual grosses, although Ratatouille performed far worse than I had anticipated. As for the rest of the films, well, I'm an idiot and totally forgot to include the comedic hit, Knocked Up, so that kind of screwed up my list. Hey, just because I have a time-traveling car doesn't exactly mean I'm a genius, alright. But a guy can learn from his mistakes - after all, I took McFly's advice and wore my bulletproof vest this time.

Anywho, do you think you can predict the weekend box office better than I can? Next week, prove it by posting your predictions in the comments section underneath mine. To the victor go the spoils, and by spoils I mean pride because I'm a college student working a minimum wage job to pay off loans and cannot afford spoils, or for that matter, Ramen noodles.