‘Public Enemies’ challenges ‘Up,’ ‘The Hangover’ for top slot on 4th of July weekend movie chart

July 5, 2:27 PMAtlanta Movies ExaminerRyan McNally

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Public Enemies, the new Michael Mann film starring Johnny Depp and Christian Bale, made a strong run at the No. 1 slot on the AME weekend movie chart**, but Up continued its six-week stranglehold on the top spot. The animated pic remains the top-rated film among critics (97 tomatometer) and moviegoers (8.8 IMDB), and is still reaching high at the box office, raking in another $6.6 million this past weekend, good for No. 6 on the B.O. chart.

Public Enemies debuted strongly across the board, ranking No. 3 at the box office ($26.1 million), No. 4 at Metacritic and No. 4 among IMDB users. It’s the first box-office hit to score so well since The Hangover debuted five weeks ago. (Speaking of which, The Hangover crossed the $200 million mark in total grosses this past weekend.)

The weekend’s other major film release, Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, was locked in a photo finish with Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen for the week’s B.O. crown. Both films were estimated to have grossed a cool $42.5 mil. The third Ice Age installment coupled its strong ticket sales with middle-of-the road reviews (45 tomatometer, No. 11 among the B.O. top 20) and slightly better word-of-mouth (7.6 IMDB) to land at No. 5 on the AME chart.

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen again failed to crack the AME top 10 despite its fiscal domination. Critics have been predictably underwhelmed (35 metacritic, No. 18), but more surprisingly, audiences have been mostly unmoved as well, grading the action pic a mediocre 6.5 at IMDB (tied for No. 15).

Elsewhere, the sci-fic flick Moon more than doubled the number of screens it was playing on, maintaining a solid $6K-plus per screen average and re-entering the chart at No. 8. Audience response remains strong, with its IMDB tally holding steady at 8.1.

The AME weekend movie chart for June 19-21:

1) Up (1).

2T) The Hangover (2).

2T) Public Enemies (NR)

4) Star Trek (3).

5) Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs (NR)

6) The Proposal (4)

7) Away We Go (5).

8) Moon (NR)

9) My Sister’s Keeper (6)

10) The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 (8).

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**Tired of reading about the latest dumb action flick, lame gross-out comedy or played-out torture porn horror pic that took home the box office crown? Wish the media balanced screaming headlines about box office winners with more stories about “the top reviewed films” or the “films audiences loved the most”?

I’m with ya. And that’s why I’ve devised a new ranking system (see list above) that combines critics’ reviews, audience response and, yes, box office to deliver a comprehensive list of what’s hot in theaters in each weekend. (The previous week’s chart position is listed in parentheses after the film title.)