Weekend box office

Studio box office projections for “The Longest Yard” proved a tad optimistic. When the dust settled Tuesday, the Paramount-MTV-Sony production ended up with $58.6 million, shy of Monday’s $60-million estimate for the four-day Memorial Day weekend. It’s still Adam Sandler’s highest-grossing movie and the best box office for a sports-themed movie, but it means that only two movies grossed more than $60 million over the weekend, instead of the record three reported in Tuesday’s editions. “Monster-in-Law,” on the other hand, wound up with $1.7 million more than had been projected. Most other estimates proved pretty much on-target.

-- R. Kinsey Lowe

*--* Movie 4-Day Total Venues Avg. Weeks (Studio) Gross (Millions) Per (Millions) Venue

1 Star Wars: Episode $70.0 $270.5 3,663 $19,123 2 III Revenge of the Sith (Fox)

2 Madagascar $61.0 $61.0 4,131 $14,769 1 (DreamWorks)

3 The Longest Yard $58.6 $58.6 3,634 $16,129 1 (Paramount)

4 Monster-in- Law $12.8 $62.4 3,230 $3,960 3 (NewLine)

5 Kicking and $6.5 $44.1 2,966 $2,195 3 Screaming (Universal)

6 Crash (Lions Gate) $6.1 $36.2 1,680 $3,607 4

7 The Interpreter $2.6 $69.2 1,171 $2,225 6 (Universal)

8 Unleashed (Focus) $2.5 $22.1 1,419 $1,756 3

9 Kingdom of Heaven $2.2 $45.0 1,327 $1,661 4 (Fox)

10 House of Wax (Warner $1.6 $29.9 1,635 $996 4 Bros.)

*--*

Source: Nielsen EDI Inc.

Los Angeles Times